SAN FRANCISCO -- When Mike Krukow moved on from his playing days and started doing radio work with Hank Greenwald in 1991, he found that he still felt he was being coached during games.
"He would make corrections between innings like coaches make corrections to players that make a mental mistake on the field," Krukow said of Greenwald. "They would address it immediately, for the simple fact that he may do that same mistake again the same game. They want to end it right there, and Hank was the same way. I was in awe of how meticulous he would be to prepare for a game."
Duane Kuiper remembers the same trait. The first lesson Greenwald taught him was to come prepared.
"He used to make sure that you did your homework," Kuiper said. "I had a notebook, a folder, and I had 10 blank pieces of paper in it just to make it look like I was studying it really hard. If he would have ever opened it up it would have been a really big shock to him. He studied hard and he wanted the person he was working with to do the same thing."
The Giants announced Tuesday morning that Greenwald, a longtime broadcaster in the Bay Area, died at the age of 83 after a long battle with heart and kidney complications. Krukow, appearing on The Happy Hour on NBC Sports Bay Area, remembered Greenwald as a tireless worker who was always compiling newspaper clips and facts from books that he could use on a broadcast, and a man with an amazing wit. Even during Krukow's playing days, he was close with Greenwald.
"He was just a storyteller, a great storyteller," Krukow said. "It was a uniqueness about his personality that we all enjoyed because he was such a historian with the game of baseball. He would hold us spellbound with the history of, not only the Giants, but of other teams we were about to play.
"That's how we got to know Hank. When you could tell a story, he enjoyed that. He was the guy that laughed the loudest."
Sports
Greenwald spent 16 years as the play-by-play voice of the Giants on KNBR, retiring in 1996. He helped both current Giants broadcasters break in.
"It was a little intimidating for a former player to do play-by-play and Hank Greenwald is sitting next to you," Kuiper said. "But you try to use that to your advantage and learn from him."
Krukow recalled Greenwald making an impression the moment you walked into his booth. He recalled that Greenwald wore a coat and tie to the radio booth every single day.
"You knew walking into Hank's booth that he was in charge," Krukow said. "He was the guy, he was the captain."
