Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow shared a fun anecdote about San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner when he joined the Murph and Mac show Thursday morning.
Bumgarner grew up an Atlanta Braves fan, and idolized longtime Braves starting pitcher Greg Maddux. When the Giants visited Chicago in 2011, Maddux was working as an assistant GM for the Cubs, and asked Krukow if he could facilitate a meeting between the two.
He goes into Chicago and he asks me, ‘do you know Greg Maddux?’ I go, ‘yeah,’ he goes, ‘can I meet him?’”
“Well Maddux was over in the Cubs’ dugout so I took him over there,” Krukow said. “(Bumgarner) walks across the field, which everybody in the Giants’ dugout was watching, and Bumgarner kind’ve had stars in his eyes, but he walked down into their dugout ’cause that’s where Maddux wanted to meet him.”
Bumgarner’s teammates made sure not to let him off the hook.
“He didn’t care he went down there and met him, but he took some severe heat from his teammates walking across the field – in batting practice going into the opposing dugout – but that’s what those guys meant to him.”
“He was a huge Braves fan, and the very first time he got to pitch against them, he stuffed them in the playoffs.”
Bumgarner made his first postseason start against Atlanta in Game 4 of the 2010 NLDS, getting the win while allowing two runs in six innings.
Listen to the full interview below.