Pirates honor broadcaster Bob Prince
The staccato rasp is back, for a night. Tonight, if the weather cooperates, thousands of "Gunners" will be in PNC Park.
Bob Prince gets his own bobblehead doll when the Pirates take on the Chicago Cubs -- "the little Cubbies," in Prince-speak -- at 7:05 p.m. It's appropriate that the Pirates' first talking bobblehead honors "Rapid Robert," as much a Pirates immortal as Roberto, Willie or Maz.
The game is approaching a sellout, with about 35,000 tickets sold. PNC Park's capacity is 37,898.
"I guess you could say it's going to be Princeburgh for a day," said former Pirates pitcher and broadcaster Jim Rooker, who added that he didn't fully realize the depth of Prince's effect on fans and the game until years after the Gunner was gone.
"I remember the night (May 3, 1985) when Bob came into the booth to do three innings and the Pirates just started hammering the Dodgers," said Rooker, 60, who runs a tavern and restaurant in Ambridge, Beaver County.
"It was as if the players responded to having him up there, and we scored about nine runs. Finally, (Dodgers manager) Tommy Lasorda came out of the dugout and looked up at the booth as if to say, 'Why me?' Then the fans turned toward us and started cheering. It blew me away. It really gave me goosebumps to see how much of an effect he had on things."
Not long after that game, on June 10, 1985, Prince died of cancer. He was 68. The following year, Prince was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame.
The Prince dolls that will be given away tonight contain battery-powered chips that play audio of three of Prince's most famous calls:
Prince was the voice of the Pirates from 1948 to '75, when he was fired. He returned a decade later -- after stints calling Houston Astros baseball, Penguins hockey and the short-lived "ABC Monday Night Baseball" -- shortly before his death.
Joe Billetdeaux, the Pirates' director of purchasing, said he immediately thought of Prince when he learned that other teams were giving away talking bobbleheads.
"The Gunner had so many great sayings," Billetdeaux said. "He was a natural choice for our first (talking) bobblehead."
Demand for the doll is high. Vin Scully, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for more than a half-century, has asked for one of the dolls honoring his late friend.
Pirates who played when Prince was broadcasting like the idea of finding ways to honor his memory.
"When I came to the Pirates, some of the players mentioned that Prince was a unique sort of fellow -- you know, a little crazy," said former pitcher Nellie Briles, who was traded from St. Louis to Pittsburgh in 1971.
"Of course, I was used to unique announcers because we had a pretty good one in Harry Caray," Briles said from his Greensburg home. "But the guys here said, 'If you think Caray is nuts, this guy Prince is really out there.' They were telling this story about how he once jumped out of a second-story hotel window into a swimming pool. Of course, my big question to them was, 'Was there any water in the pool?'"
Over the years, Briles got to know another side of Prince.
"He was not only a good on-air broadcaster, he was truly a representative of the Pirates," said Briles, 60. "When you thought of Bob, you thought of the Pirates. And when you thought of the Pirates, you thought of Bob Prince."
Dick Groat, a shortstop for the Pirates from 1952 to '62 and the National League's Most Valuable Player in the Pirates' magical 1960 season, said Prince often took the credit for Groat's three daughters.
"I was warming up before a game at the Polo Grounds (in New York) in 1955, and I noticed this beautiful young woman in the stands with this older man," said Groat, 72, who runs the Champion Lakes golf course near Bolivar, Westmoreland County.
"So I went over to Prince at the batting cage and asked if he knew anything about her. He said she was one of the top models in New York. Then he said, 'Don't worry. That guy is her father.' He got her number for me, and she ended up being my wife."
Prince was a tireless advocate for causes that benefited children, Groat said. "He was a first-class guy. He would do anything to help young children."
Bob Friend, who pitched for the Pirates from 1951 to '65, said Prince left a lasting impression on him.
"We were training in San Bernardino, Calif., and in walks Prince with this big cowboy hat on, telling us he just got in from 'the Springs,' meaning Palm Springs," Friend said from his home in O'Hara. "He really liked to lay it on. I got to know him pretty well during the 15 years I was with the club. He was very professional and a great guy to have around."
Nellie King, Prince's broadcast partner who was fired with him in 1975, said one incident that sticks in his memory is a game in which Prince announced that a player named "Rab Mungee" was coming into the game to pinch-hit.
"He heard this name over the public address system and started calling the play-by-play of the at-bat, using that name," said King, 75, who is compiling a book on Prince. "We couldn't find a player by that name on the roster, but figured that kind of thing happens late in the season when they bring up lots of people from the minor leagues.
"After the guy grounded out, we heard the PA announcer say: 'Rab Mungee of Charleroi please come to the ticket office.' So Bob just announced that Rab Mungee's career in the majors began and ended at 0 for 1."
As for that question kicking around in your head, King said he never saw Prince knock back a few Iron City beers during a game.
Former Pirates General Manager Joe L. Brown, who dismissed Prince in 1975, said that despite the decision, he had great respect for Prince.
"He was a warm, fun person to be around," Brown said from his home in Southern California. "You could not be in his company and not enjoy yourself."
Brown, 84, said he met Prince when he came to Pittsburgh in 1948 to promote the "Babe Ruth Story" for the Allied Artists film company. "People loved to listen to him, and he was one of the best salesmen for the game. A true professional."
Dave Giusti, who pitched for the Pirates from 1970 to '76, said Prince demonstrated his professionalism when infielder Freddie Patek dumped a bucket of icewater on the announcer as he conducted a live interview with another player.
"It was amazing. He didn't lose his cool. Didn't utter one swear word. I was impressed," Giusti said from his Upper St. Clair home.
Sally O'Leary, a Cranberry resident who was hired by Prince in 1964 to handle the several hundred pieces of fan mail he received each week during the season, said he always put the fans first.
"He answered every letter he received," said O'Leary, 69, who runs the Pirates' alumni association. "And when it came to shut-ins or children who were in the hospital, or people's birthdays, he always made it a point to mention them on the air and wish them well because he knew it meant something special to them."
Doug Skowron, 48, of Sewickley, who grew up listening to Prince, believes the key to Prince's popularity was that he seemed to be enjoying himself.
"The stats and the play-by-play were only part of the game," Skowron said. "Between the sayings, the nicknames, his great laugh and the rapport he had going, you couldn't help but enjoy yourself."
| Gunnerisms |
Following are some of the sayings and nicknames used by famed Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince. The collection has been compiled on a Web site run by Pirates fan Glenn Gearhard, a native of Murrysville living in Arlington, Va.
Sayings
Nicknames
