'Post Game Wrap' keeps Giants fans entertained

Announcers Dave Flemming (left), Jon Miller, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper have a camaraderie that can make fans smile even during a disappointing season. Announcers Dave Flemming (left), Jon Miller, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper have a camaraderie that can make fans smile even during a disappointing season. Photo: Ben Fong-Torres Photo: Ben Fong-Torres Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 'Post Game Wrap' keeps Giants fans entertained 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"It's cruel times. It's not fun," Mike Krukow said recently after the Giants went down to yet another defeat.

Indeed. As a Thomas Paine of today might put it, these are the times that try Giants fans' souls.

It's a good thing they have the "KNBR Post Game Wrap" to turn to. Even in cruel times, the postmortem often is fun, in the hands of the Giants' team of radio and TV play-by-play announcers and commentators: Krukow, Jon Miller, Dave Flemming and Duane Kuiper.

And it's become must-hear radio for followers of the local nine. In fact, it's also must-see TV, as Comcast Sports Bay Area, knowing a good thing when it hears one, began televising the show about five years ago, according to KNBR engineer Lee Jones.

If, on the "Wrap," the four announcers look crammed together, that's because they are. The KNBR booth is only about 10 by 15 feet and dominated by equipment. Two mini-cameras on a wall, above where Jones is perched, cover two men each. Miller and Flemming stand where they normally sit, looking out over home plate. Krukow takes his spot next to Miller. In front of him, Kuiper leans over part of Jones' table. On TV, it looks like he's sitting. On occasion, he snacks on peanuts while the other guys are talking.

"When they started to televise it," he said, "we were told, all the camera was doing was eavesdropping; do not change anything. So I don't. I treat it like it's a radio show, and I do what I want - within reason."

Krukow said the team was initially resistant to TV. "What if we want to have a beer?" he asked. "They said, 'You can have a beer.' So the next 'Wrap,' I was sitting here having a Corona. Next day there was a memo: 'There will be no more drinking on the "Wrap." ' "

Even without alcohol, there's plenty of frivolity on the show, which is anchored by Flemming and broken into two segments: a round of comments by each of the guys about the game just completed, and a round of picks for a "player of the game."

The broadcasters take turns going first. "Whoever goes first, if I'm second, we usually have the same guy," Krukow said. "When you're fourth, you have to dig deep. We're not opposed to an opposing player being picked. We only have one rule: No Dodgers."

Miller recalled, "When Joe Angel was here - he didn't pick a Dodger, but he came close enough that we had to suspend him."

"I think it's hilarious," said Henry Schulman, the Giants beat writer for The Chronicle. "The funniest part to me is when they have a stinker of a game and they still have to pick four guys as their players of the game. They're self-aware of how tough it is, and they'll make fun of the process. I try to watch or listen when I can." Schulman is not alone. "The 'Wrap' is one of the most listened-to features of the Giants broadcast," said Lee Hammer, program director. "People want to make sure it's podcast so if they can't stay up for the whole game, they can listen to it in the morning." (The podcasts can be found at KNBR.com, under "Features.")

The original "Wrap" team was Krukow, Kuiper and Ted Robinson. Fellow announcer Hank Greenwald declined to participate. "It took on a life of its own," Krukow said. "When Jon came aboard in 1997 he plugged in, and we had fun with it. It defined us in the eyes of the fans; they got to know us as people more than as broadcasters. The results have been fantastic. Dave came aboard and took over as the host, and it was great for his career, because he was a new broadcaster coming into an established team, and our audience embraced him quickly. And I think the 'Wrap' had everything to do with it."

Flemming draws both quips and baseball wisdom from his "Wrap"-mates. His pick one recent game was Brandon Belt, and Krukow noted that the first baseman "beat the scouting report. They set their glove on the inside corner, and he beat it." Later, he noted that when Belt relaxed, he performed better, getting hits - "Wap! Wap!"

"The guy I'm picking," Kuiper said, "has no 'wap.' He had an oh-for-four wap wap. But he caught a great game, so I'm taking him."

After a pick is explained, one of the men will say, "Good pick." Thus complimented, Miller often beams like a child who's just gotten a star in class.

The chemistry is obvious, and the enthusiasm is, according to Krukow, rare - at least in baseball. "When we go around the league, other broadcasters or people who work the game will say, 'Hope it's a quick game.' We say, where else would you rather be? We do have a camaraderie here that I don't think other broadcast teams have. If we have a night off, we go out to dinner, two or three hours."

There, Flemming said, "We have our own little wraps. We talk about the team, and we laugh. We like to spend time together."

Morning madness: Chuy Gomez, unceremoniously dismissed by KMEL management after 12 years anchoring the morning show and 20 years at the station, is too civil and smart to knock his former bosses in public. So he parrots the preposterous line he was given after he was called into a meeting the morning of Aug. 15. "They said, 'We're going in a different direction,' " he said.

But he knew that the "different direction" mainly meant a move to a less expensive DJ (KMEL replaced him with afternoon jock Sana G).

"I think it was a budget thing," he told me. "I took a pay cut last time (his contract was renewed in 2010), and I don't think they were ready to ask me to take another pay cut, since my ratings were doing so well, so it was a better business decision."

KMEL is perched at No. 4 in the market. But broadcast corporations are slashing expenses with little thought to a DJ's or a station's performance. A big salary is reason enough. Witness the dismissal of Greg Kihn, a star DJ on KUFX (K-Fox) for 16 years, or the termination of Kevin Brown, popular wake-up DJ and program director of KBLX.

Gomez said he's received several job offers. To his listeners, he said, "Thank you for all the years allowing me to entertain you. It's a blessing. It's not goodbye. On to the next." {sbox}