Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow has a degenerative muscle disease

The diagnosis is not new -- he was first diagnosed eight years ago -- but Giants broadcaster and former big league pitcher Mike Krukow has publicly revealed that he has a non-fatal degenerative muscle disease. From the Chronicle:

Krukow, 62, has kept his condition a secret, but now he’s ready to reveal that he’s suffering from a degenerative muscle disease called inclusion-body myosotis. IBM causes progressive weakness in the muscles of the wrist and fingers, the front of the thigh, and the muscles that lift the front of the foot. There’s no cure and no solid theory for what causes it.

It has caused him to fall down and he now wears braces on his legs for support. He may need a walker or a scooter eventually.

The key takeaway here, and maybe a big part of why Krukow is now going public, is that he was in denial about it for a long time. Men, especially athletes, but really all men, tend to react that way to medical issues. Take the “eh, I can deal” approach when maybe they can’t. I know I have. Good to see Krukow sloughing that off now. Maybe it’ll encourage other men to pay closer attention to what their bodies tell them as they get older.