The pair were guests of Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville on the Starkville Podcast and the natural question was asked. How long do you plan on calling games?

“I’ll do it as long as Mike does it,” Kuiper said. “For me, it’s all about my relationship with him. And as long as he goes, that’s how far I’ll go.”

“You guys both know Harry Kalas and you remember Richie Ashburn,” Krukow added. “They were a great partnership. In 1982, when I was with the Phillies, I got to know them really well. And the way they went out is how we want to go out.”

For reference, Ashburn died in September of 1997 while Kalas passed away in April of 2009. Both men were announcing games until their respective deaths.

Kuiper then praised Kalas and Ashburn, as well as Philadelphia’s current announcers.

“One of the things we loved about going to Philadelphia is their tradition,” Kuiper added. “You walk in the stadium and it’s the same people that have been there for 30 or 40 years. And if they’re not there when you go back the next year, then you get worried, like you may have lost someone. Mike mentioned the Philly guys. They were fantastic.”

Krukow and Kuiper have had some challenges through the years. Krukow, 73, is battling inclusion body myositis, which he was diagnosed with in 2011 (though it didn’t become public knowledge until 2014). As such, he has a lightened schedule and when he broadcasts a Giants road game, it’s from a studio location in San Francisco. Krukow (along with the Giants and NBC Sports Bay Area) originally came to that arrangement ahead of the 2020 season. That would later became common throughout MLB in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19. Kuiper, 74, meanwhile, missed a large portion of the 2021 season while going through chemotherapy.

Before signing off from the Starkville Podcast, Krukow once again reiterated his desire to finish his career in the same manner that Kalas and Ashburn did.

“And the way they ended their career, that’s how we wanna do it,” he said.