Bob Prince

Robert Ferris Prince (July 1, 1916 - June 10, 1985) was an American radio and television sportscaster and commentator best known for his 28-year stint as the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball club, with whom he earned the nickname “The Gunner” and became a Pittsburgh icon. Prince was one of the most distinct, colorful and popular voices in sports broadcast history, known for his gravel voice, unabashed style and clever nicknames and phrases, which came to be known as "Gunnerisms." His unique manner influenced a number of broadcasters after him, a list that includes Pittsburgh Penguins voice Mike Lange and Pittsburgh Steelers color analyst Myron Cope among others. Prince called Pirates games from 1948 to 1975, including the World Series championship years of 1960 and 1971. Nationally, Prince broadcast the 1960, 1966, and 1971 World Series and the 1965 All-Star Game for NBC.

The Prince who would be king

Prince was born in Los Angeles. His father was a former West Point football player and a career military man. An Army brat, he attended many schools before graduating from Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An athlete himself, he lettered in swimming at the University of Pittsburgh. Prince joined Rosey Rowswell in the Pirates' broadcast booth as a commentator in 1948, and he was promoted to the top spot shortly after Rowswell’s death in February, 1955. As a result of his unmistakable voice, fertile baseball mind, and high-profile persona, it wasn't long before Prince would be king among Pirates supporters everywhere. Perhaps more than any Pirates player, Prince was responsible for the conversion of an untold number of fans in the Baby Boomer generation. His voice was a fixture on team broadcasts that aired continuously for seven decades on KDKA-AM, a clear channel radio station that could be heard well beyond the tri-state area after sundown. A regular smoker who was known to have a drink or two off the field and keep late hours, Prince lived much like the way he broadcast. In 1957, on a dare by Pirates third baseman Gene Freese, Prince jumped from the third floor of the Chase Hotel in St. Louis into a swimming pool below. Many veteran observers believe Prince did his best work while paired with longtime sidekick Jim "The Possum" Woods and vice versa in the 1960s, which coincided with the rise of the Pirates as a championship-caliber team. It was Woods who first referred to Prince as the "The Gunner." However, it was not because of his staccato style but rather the result of an incident, during Woods' first spring-training with the Pirates in Fort Myers, Florida (1958). As Woods recounted, two decades later, to an interviewer in Cleveland, Prince had a narrow escape from an encounter with a jealous husband who was packing a gun. To be sure, no one bled black and gold like Prince did before or since. Invariably, when his Buccos were trailing in the late innings by two runs, he'd say, "We need a bloop and a blast!" His partisanship slipped over into Woods' style as well, and by the mid-'60s, The Possum would be announcing the presence of pinch-hitter (and reserve catcher) Jesse Gonder with, "Let's go up yonder with Jesse Gonder." (The two would continue working together through the 1969 season, after which the flagship station KDKA refused to match a higher salary offer from KMOX in St. Louis for Woods to join Jack Buck in the Cardinals' booth; that partnership only lasted two seasons.) Prince was more of a rooter than a homer, in that he always showed respect to opponents and the game alike. Like the vast majority of broadcasters of his time, he rarely second-guessed players or managers. He was especially close friends with Milwaukee Braves pitchers Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. In 1966, Prince concocted a good-luck charm known as the Green Weenie, a plastic rattle in the shape of an oversized green hot dog that Pirates fans used to jinx opponents. ("Never underestimate the power of the Green Weenie," he liked to assure listeners).

Later career

Soon after control of the broadcasts changed from Atlantic Richfield to Westinghouse Broadcasting in 1969, Prince had numerous conflicts with Westinghouse management. His conflicts with Westinghouse executives Edward Wallis and A.B. "Bill" Hartman became personal. Finally, in 1975, Prince and sidekick Nellie King were fired, a decision that Pirates fans did not take well. Egged on by competing radio station WEEP, hundreds of supporters held a parade and downtown rally. Several Pirates players also went to bat for him, but Prince was not rehired despite their efforts. After his time with the Pirates, Prince had stints calling Houston Astros baseball, Pittsburgh Penguins hockey and ABC's Monday Night Baseball. However, Pittsburgh was clearly the place for Prince, as he never realized his previous popularity elsewhere. He was removed from the primary Monday night broadcast team during his first season and dropped after its conclusion. He also was released by the Astros after a one-year stay. Prince drifted from job to job, many of which were considered small for a celebrity who had been the hottest act in town. Eventually, he returned to baseball and called Pirates games for a cable station in the early 1980s. However, his exposure was limited and Prince was too far removed from the scene to offer many insights about the game or the team. KDKA and the Pirates decided to make Prince a member of the regular broadcast team in 1985. The announcement came days after he had been released from a hospital for cancer treatments. Prince returned to the Pirates broadcast booth on May 3, 1985 to announce three innings of the game between the Pirates and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Weakened from mouth cancer, Prince was able to announce only two innings but was given three standing ovations by the crowd as pure magic occurred. The Pirates scored 9 runs in the first inning that Prince announced, one for each year of his absence from the booth. In the next inning Prince called for first baseman Jason Thompson to park one "so we'll have a little bit of everything", and Jason promptly homered. In 1985, it was a Pirate team that was not very talented and was not a playoff contender. Willie Stargell had retired, and most of the 1979 Championship Team had disbanded. Nonetheless, the fourth inning broadcast announced by Prince on May 3, 1985, was the fifth most runs scored in any one inning during the Pittsburgh Pirates long franchise history. One commentator on KDKA Television (Channel 2) referred to it on the 6:00 p.m. news as the "last revival of the Green Weenie," Prince's good luck charm from 1966. Prince continued to announce "the middle three" innings of several home games for the next four weeks, but grew too weak to continue and died a week later of mouth cancer. Prince was posthumously awarded the Ford C. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame as a broadcaster in 1986. Even today, his name remains synonymous with Pirates baseball. In 1999, Prince was selected for the Pride of the Pirates award, a lifetime achievement honor given annually to a member of the organization.

Gunnerisms

Prince used dozens of pet words and phrases that were often imitated but never duplicated in his profession. The short list:

• "A bloop and a blast": A base hit and a home run, usually late in the game when the Bucs were down by a run.
• "There's a bug loose on the rug": On Astroturf, a ground ball that was scooting between all the fielders on the defensive team, often skipping/rolling all the way to the outfield wall.
• "A dying quail": a bloop base hit.
• "Can o' corn": a routine fly ball.
• "Foul by a gnat's eyelash" and "Close as fuzz on a tick's ear": Usually meant as the difference between a ball being fair or foul or a player being safe or out.
• "Good night, Mary Edgerley, wherever you are": his trademark farewell, although the identity of said person was never disclosed. Prince admitted the phrase was a variation of comedian Jimmy Durante's nightly good-bye to an unseen Mrs. Calabash on his television show.
• "Hoover": A double play in which the Pirates would remove a runner(s) from the bases, it was often followed by the instructions, "Pull out the plug, mother!"
• "Kiss it good-bye!" or "You can kiss this baby good-bye!": legendary home run call and current broadcast standard.
• "Radio ball": A fastball thrown so hard it “could be heard but not seen.”
• "Soup cooler": A pitch delivered high and inside.
• "Spread some chicken on the Hill with Will": Denotes a home run hit by Pirates slugger Willie Stargell who owned a fried chicken establishment in the Hill District of Pittsburgh and offered free chicken to any customer who was in line when Stargell homered.
• "Sufferin' catfish": words of frustration after the baseball gods conspired against his team.
• "The alabaster plaster": The rock-hard infield surface at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.
• "The bases are F.O.B.": The bases are loaded (“Full of Bucs,” probably borrowed from Red Barber's "Full of Brooklyns").
• "The House of Thrills": Forbes Field itself.
• "'Tweener": a hit to the outfield wall between left field and center field or between right field and center field.
• "We had 'em alllll the way" or "The Buccos had 'em alllll the way": a way to say that the Pirates never trailed in a game. Also used humorously and ironically after the Pirates scored an improbable, come-from-behind victory.

In addition, Prince created colorful nicknames for numerous Pirates players, a list that included:

• Nelson Briles: "The Rainmaker"
• Roberto Clemente: "Arriba" and "The Great One"
• Donn Clendenon: "Clink"
• Gene Clines: "Li'l Angry"
• Roy Face: "The Baron (of the Bullpen)"
• Dick Groat: "Double Dozen"
• Harvey Haddix: "The Kitten" (reference: 1960 World Series Game 7 broadcast mp3 available at MLB.com)
• Richie Hebner: "Puck" (Hebner played hockey as a youth in the Boston area).
• Don Hoak: "The Tiger" (reference: 1960 World Series Game 7 broadcast mp3 available at MLB.com)
• Ralph Kiner: "The Alhambra Kid"
• Bruce Kison: "The Whip"
• Vern Law: "The Deacon" (reference: 1960 World Series Game 7 broadcast mp3 available at MLB.com)
• Bill Mazeroski: "Maz" and "The Glove"
• Al Oliver: "Scoop"
• Dave Parker "The Cobra"
• Manny Sanguillen: "The Road Runner"
• Bob Skinner: "The Dog" (reference: 1960 World Series Game 7 broadcast mp3 available at MLB.com)
• Willie Stargell: "Pops" and "Willie the Starg"
• Bill Virdon: "The Quail" (reference: 1960 World Series Game 7 broadcast mp3 available at MLB.com)

External links

• Bob Prince bio by James Forr
• Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient
• Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Bio Project