Mike Krukow is getting one more tribute before he walks away from the Giants booth, and this one comes in a can.
Berkeley’s Fieldwork Brewing Company is rolling out a beer in honor of the longtime San Francisco broadcaster as it prepares to open a taproom near Oracle Park on Sept. 25.
The beer, a West Coast IPA called “Grab Some Pine, Meat,” leans into the catchphrase Krukow has made famous over decades on Giants broadcasts. Fans know the routine: after a Giants pitcher punches out an opposing hitter, the “meat” heads back to the “pine” bench.
Fieldwork said proceeds from the beer will go to the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation, a Reno-based charity tied to Krukow’s hometown. Krukow told SFGATE on Monday that Fieldwork co-founder Barry Braden also made a $20,000 donation to the foundation last week, and an anonymous match for Children’s Cancer Month doubled it to $40,000.
“To have a beer named after you is freaking cool,” Krukow said. “But to have a donation from all the beer sales going to help out children’s cancer, it’s just cool, man. Very cool.”
Braden said in a news release, “Mike Krukow is part of the fabric of San Francisco. He’s been there for so many of the moments that make being a Giants fan special, and we wanted to do something that felt very Fieldwork to celebrate him.”
The beer arrives with Krukow in the middle of a farewell stretch. He announced on Aug. 6 that 2026 would be his final season in the booth, closing the book on a 36-year run.
His last game is set for Sept. 27, when the Giants host the Dodgers, though the tributes have already started. Oracle Park now has a new sign with his likeness and the words “Atta babe, Kruk!”
on the outfield wall.
Krukow said the first week of home games after the announcement hit him hard.
He told SFGATE the reaction was “so overwhelmingly beautiful” and said it left him crying a lot. Even so, he’s trying to keep the final weeks light.
“I’m hoping to have a lot of fun with it,” he said.
Health has made the decision unavoidable. Krukow said he wanted to keep calling games, but inclusion body myositis, the muscle disease he was first diagnosed with 20 years ago, has made broadcasting too difficult to continue. When he announced the news to NBC Sports Bay Area, he said, “I don’t want to quit,” before explaining that the situation had become increasingly unstable and unsafe.
“My home in Reno is much safer and it really is the determining factor in how I can’t do games anymore,” Krukow said.
When he’s in San Francisco, Krukow lives close to Oracle Park and uses a special motorized wheelchair to move around the neighborhood. That’s put him around Mission Rock, where Fieldwork has been building out its location since last September. The brewery has already made another Giants-linked beer, though Braden told SFGATE that one was discontinued after catcher Patrick Bailey was traded to the Guardians in May.
Krukow said he’s already spent time at the spot during its soft open, and he’s also watched FIFA World Cup matches at the brewery’s popup stand in China Basin Park. He’s even become a regular enough visitor to have a food recommendation ready.
He said multiple times on the call that he liked the fish and chips.
“It means a lot to me,” Krukow said of the location and the people who’ve been stopping by. “I mean, you’re right there on McCovey Cove.
You’re looking at the ballpark. You couldn’t find a better place,” Krukow said.
His connection to the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation began through Buster Posey’s charitable work around children’s cancer research, but the foundation’s hands-on help is what really won Krukow over. He described a group that helps watch kids while parents take one child to appointments, cleans and disinfects homes during treatment, fills refrigerators with food, and even rents out a theater for a family movie night.
“They’re just really, really cool. So we really became impassioned by it.”
Fieldwork says the beer itself will be a “a bone-dry, resinous Westcoast IPA with aromas of fresh pine needles, juicy pink grapefruit, and bright lime zest, all anchored by a subtle hint of crushed papaya and crisp passionfruit.” It will come in a black can with an orange microphone and the No. 39, the number Krukow wore when he pitched for the Giants from 1983 to 1989.
Krukow hasn’t tried it yet, but he already knows the drill. After all the tributes, gifts, and sendoffs that are coming his way, this one is going back to Reno.
“I’ve told people the story, and they’re excited about it, and they want the beer,” Krukow said. “So yeah, I’ll be taking a ton of the beer back to Reno when the season’s over.”
In Other News...
Giants Keep Sending A Frustrating Message With Homegrown Rookie Catcher
The Giants catching picture has taken on a strange shape this season, and it has kept circling back to the same question of opportunity. After moving on from Patrick Bailey, San Francisco has leaned on a mix of rookie options behind the plate, including Stockton native Zach Morgan, who has been called up twice and spent time on the roster during September call-ups.
Andrew Knizner has continued to get playing time even with a low batting average, while Morgan has yet to appear in a game. For a club trying to sort out its catching depth, the message has been hard to miss: the looks are not coming evenly, and the homegrown rookie is still waiting for his turn. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Finally Getting Clarity On Which Young Pieces Matter
Since the trade deadline, the Giants have been using the stretch run to sort out what their 2027 roster might actually look like, and a small group of young players has started to separate itself from the rest. Christian Koss, Dylan Smith, Turner Hill, Jonah Cox and Drew Gilbert have all flashed enough to make the club think twice about where they fit, with possible lanes ranging from utility work in the infield to bullpen innings and platoon help in the outfield.
None of that means the picture is settled, of course, but it does give San Francisco something it has needed: a little clarity on which younger pieces are worth carrying forward. The next few weeks will still matter for each of them, and the Giants decisions could shift as they keep evaluating, but the organization is no longer guessing quite as much about who belongs in the long-term conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Give Infielder A Real Shot As Roster Decisions Loom
The Giants made a late-season roster shuffle before their second game against the Cardinals, recalling infielder Brett Harris from Triple-A and sending catcher Zach Morgan back down. Harris, who was recently claimed off waivers from the Red Sox, now gets a real look in San Francisco as the club evaluates depth options with the season winding down.
The move comes with the bigger picture already closing in on the Giants, who are carrying a roster crunch because of so many players on the 60-day injured list. Those injuries are forcing the front office to sort through a stack of decisions soon, including who stays in the mix and who might be moved off the roster as the club tries to manage the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]