Giants Opening Radio: Miller, Kruk/Kuip, Flemming in Booth, (And it Worked)

For the first time ever, all four of the Giants' broadcasters; Jon Miller, Mike Krukow. Duane Kuiper and Dave Flemming, were all ensconced in the radio-only booth as the Giants took on the LA Dodgers.

I made specific plans to listen intently to the game because its not often you hear a four-man show. To their credit, the Giants' quadruple tonsils pulled off quite a dedicated, understated broadcast without the slightest annoyance.

Miller worked the majority of innings and was his usual best, with Mike Krukow providing a mostly solid, entertaining and baseball-informative commentary. During the early part of the broadcast when the twilight in LA was most evident, Krukow accurately pointed out that the hitters would have "major problems." They did.

Flemming, who seems to be getting better, performed a flawless broadcast--its especially evident when he interacts with Miller, who seems to have taken a bond with the Giants junior announcer. Most gratifying was the lack of shtick between Miller and "Flem"--it was a more nuts and bolts performance and it worked well.

Duane Kuiper was good too, and Krukow's back-and-forth analysis was mostly spot-on. Actually, quite a delight to hear. We can thank ESPN for this Giants' broadcast first. With Miller away from the ESPN booth, all four voices were primed to work the KNBR ship alone.

On paper, four voices in the same show sounds like a potential load. To their credit, the guys did a good job of avoiding an audio fender-bender. It WAS, actually, an entertaining broadcast. The only problem, (and not the fault of Miller and company;) because of the obvious satellite delay, those listening on radio heard the proceedings a good 5-7 seconds before seeing them on ESPN, again the satellite to blame.

Nevertheless, hats off to the 4 horseman who gave listeners a nice, truly unique, and first ever 4-person show. Here's hoping we get another one sometime soon.