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Prince hit it out of the park in baseball, but fell flat in hockey

5 min read

Bob Prince and the Penguins. Dream team or nightmare?

It’s one of the more obscure footnotes in Western Pennsylvania sports history, but for two years, famed Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince was part of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.

For the 1976-77 season, Prince was hired to do community relations for the struggling team, which at that point, certainly needed a flamboyant promoter. If publicity was the goal, the hiring was an immediate success. It was big news everywhere, and a front sports page story in the Observer-Reporter on Aug. 20, 1976.

A year later, someone decided to put Prince in the TV broadcast booth, raising eyebrows of sports enthusiasts everywhere. While Prince’s long-winded tales were perfect for slow-paced baseball, it was unlikely he would even get to blurt out, “Did you hear the one about … ” between constant action on the ice.

As the O-R’s TV-radio writer at the time, I decided to get Prince’s take on the controversial assignment.

In a forgotten interview I found while rifling through some old column clippings for last month’s article on Bud Yorkin, Mr. Prince – big surprise – had quite a lot to say.

He opened with, “I’m gonna make people understand the beauty of the brutality. Hockey is a game of guts and courage, and people have got to understand that. Outside of the diehard fan, people don’t really understand hockey. And I’m going to do a lot things differently to help change all that.”

Brash young reporter that I was at the time, I asked, “Does that mean more ‘Green Weinie’ and ‘Babushka Power’ promotions?”

He didn’t hang up.

“If anything comes to mind, sure,” Prince responded, no doubt biting his tongue. “But all those things I did came on the spur of the moment.”

Nonetheless, it was obvious Prince had been thinking about some possible gimmicks.

“I’m going to have every possible penalty filmed, and then when it happens in the game, I’ll show it to the fans in slow motion and set to music. You know, put a little romance into it,” he said. “I’m not going to keep saying who has the puck; it moves so fast, you hardly have time to announce all the names. I’ll just say, ‘the Penguins are on the attack.'”

While baseball was just a small part of the conversation, Prince made a point of saying that he and Nellie King were over their firing by the Pirates organization. At the same time, he took umbrage with their “Lumber and Lightning” promotion that particular season.

“If I was still with the Pirates, I’d never let ’em dump ‘Lumber and Lightning’ in my lap. I’m not saying the line is good or bad, but you just can’t sit down at the beginning of the season and contrive something,” Prince said. “What if they steal 350 bases and get caught 250 times? What the hell good does that do? And what if the lumber becomes toothpicks by August?”

Those so-called promotions, he said, have got to be a gut feeling.

“I invented that ‘Babushka Power’ by mistake. I was trying to think of the word ‘scarf’ – and ended up drawing 300,000 more people to the ballpark.'”

I long ago forgot what Prince had said in the interview; I even had to confirm with Penguins expert Bob Grove that Prince did indeed go on to broadcast Penguins games during the 1977-78 season. But what stayed with me was that during the interview, Prince mirrored his on-air persona. Unlike most celebrities during an interview, Prince was extremely approachable. He did not mince words (or profanity), was engaging, personable and probably would have talked for hours if I didn’t have to meet a deadline. It was akin to having a wee-hours conversation with someone in a bar.

Perhaps Prince picked up that I was a fan of announcers who root for the home team (still am). Prince took it to an even more intimate level by criticizing a player, coach or manager on occasion, which added to his sports-buddy demeanor, but evidently infuriated the Pirates organization.

So I asked Prince what makes a good announcer.

“That ball’s in play only eight minutes out of 150,” he said. “What do you say in the 142 minutes when there’s nothing going on? Now that’s what determines a good announcer – one that fills up the time and keeps the people interested.”

On his baseball broadcasts, Prince did just that with his tales, shout-outs to shut-ins and birthday wishes, something he vowed to do as a Penguins announcer as well.

Prince never adjusted to hockey’s pace, however, and he was off the air after one season.

I can’t recall watching any of the hockey games Prince broadcast, but I can well imagine that his folksy style wasn’t a good fit.

Prince was, however, a perfect fit for baseball. You never listened to a game alone when Prince was on the air. Like a best friend, he shared stories, opinions and pointless chitchat. And when it was time, he’d even wish you a happy birthday.

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