Article by jekky

Early life and career 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 An athlete himself he lettered in swimming at the University of Pittsburgh Prince worked for radio station WJAS then landed a sports show on KDKA TV 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 death in February 1955 He also broadcast Pittsburgh Steelers and Penn State football in the 1950s 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 Pairing with Jim Woods 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 If calling for three runs he would say We need a bleeper 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 The Green Weenie In 1966 Prince popularized 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 At the height of the term s popularity in 1966 Prince often punctuated the last out of a Bucs victory by exclaiming The Great Green Weenie has done it again By late season with the Pirates in a terrific pennant race with the Dodgers and Giants some fans would parade a giant replica of the Green Weenie through the grandstand as a rally symbol The hex symbol had started in the dugout with trainer Danny Whelan Prince picked up on it and began talking about it on the broadcasts No one thought to trademark the Green Weenie so tens of thousands were sold in 1966 but Prince Whelan and the Pirates didn t profit from it Later career Departure from the Pirates 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 Pirates management often interceded to quell tensions between Prince and KDKA executives Finally in 1975 Prince and sidekick Nellie King were fired a decision that Pirates management did not try to reverse Pirates fans shocked by the news did not react 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 rehiring Prince was never a consideration KDKA hired Milo Hamilton in December and distributed press kits at a news conference that had a cover sticker proclaiming The New Voice of the Pirates 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 His work with the Penguins was a cause of consternation for hockey fans Prince didn t understand the game didn t know the Penguins personnel and thought he could get by on his reputation and popularity Eventually he was taken off play by play and re cast as an intermission interviewer 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 May 3 1985 KDKA and the Pirates decided to make Prince a member of the regular broadcast team in 1985 Broadcaster Lanny Frattare suggested that KDKA should launch a campaign to have Prince recognized with the Hall of Fame s Ford Frick Award At about the same time independently station executives Rick Starr and Chris Cross decided Prince should have a role on the radio broadcasts 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 Thompson promptly homered The 1985 Pirate team was not very talented and would lose 104 games Willie Stargell had retired three years earlier 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 announced a few following homestands but weeks later he reported to the park for another game but his illness forced him to go home after waiting through a long rain delay Prince was unable to report for work again and was re admitted to the hospital He died on June 10 Honors and awards 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 Here are some 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 or just A bug on a rug A ground ball that scooted between all the fielders on the defensive team often skipping rolling all the way to the outfield wall Also possibly refers to the artificial turf as a rug A dying quail A bloop base hit more commonly known as a Texas Leaguer Can o corn or A No 8 can of Golden Bantam A routine fly ball or popup which came straight down from old time grocery stores in which canned goods including corn were on a very high shelf and a stick was used to pull them off the shelf and be neatly caught by the clerk Golden Bantam was a popular brand of corn Foul by a gnat s eyelash and Close as fuzz on a tick s ear The difference between a ball being fair or foul or a player being safe or out Frozen rope A hard line drive often hit by Roberto Clemente Hidden vigorish A call for help for the Pirates or for an individual player as in He just needs a little hidden vigorish Vigorish from a Yiddish slang term is the somewhat hidden profit that bookmakers get for a bet regardless of who wins or loses Low hummin riser A fastball Rug cuttin time and For all the money marbles and chalk The deciding moment crunch time Runnin through the raindrops Escaping without serious damage as when a Pirate pitcher gives up several hits and or walks in an inning but the other team did not score He couldn t hit that with a bed slat After a batter chased a pitch way outside A little bingle A little hit single a way to get on base and start a rally Aspirin tablets Fastballs so quick they seem that small Atem balls A pun describing hard batted balls that went right to a fielder right at em When this happened a few times in a game Prince would say that a Pirate pitcher has his atem ball workin tonight Babushka power Prince would call on the power of the headscarves that women fans wore At Prince s urging the women sometimes would take off their scarves and wave them Steelers announcer Myron Cope later adapted the idea into the Terrible Towel that Steeler fans still wave Arriba Spanish for above or aloft used by Prince in reverential reference to Clemente and his astonishing skills Fans adopted the word as Clemente s nickname Prince was fluent in Spanish and helped mentor and translate for Hispanic players including Clemente a Puerto Rican who spoke English with a heavy accent How sweet it is Exclaimed whenever the result was sweet for the Pirates The phrase apparently was also used by Rosey Rosewell longtime Pirate announcer who Prince joined at the beginning of his career It is originally attributed to entertainer Jackie Gleason Good night Mary Edgerly wherever you are His trademark farewell although he never explained on air who she was Prince admitted the phrase was a variation of comedian Jimmy Durante s nightly good bye to an unseen Mrs Calabash on his television show Mary Frances Smith Edgerly was indeed a real person a dear friend of Bob and Betty Prince who resided at the Blue Waters Beach Club in St Petersburg Florida Mayme was a lifelong baseball fan and used to spend hours in the stands during spring training watching her beloved Pirates She was a lively and interesting lady who died at the age of 105 two weeks after attending an Old Timers game in Buffalo New York Clemente also loved Mary and gave her one of his record setting bats Hoover A double play in which the Pirates would vacuum runners from the bases which happened often as second baseman Bill Mazeroski holds the all time record for double plays Once criticized for promoting a vacuum cleaner company that was not a sponsor Prince who did not like anyone challenging his sayings invented the explanation that he was referring to the tax relief policies of former President Herbert Hoover Pull out the plug mother When the other team s rally went down the drain often due to an inning ending double play Kiss it good bye or You can 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 ould be heard but not seen Soup cooler A pitch delivered high and inside so termed because it was up around the lips which blow on soup to cool it Spread some chicken on the Hill with Will or just Chicken on the Hill After 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 A fairly common southern term The alabaster plaster The rock hard infield surface at Pittsburgh s Forbes Field An alabaster blast was the basehit that came off the hard infield more commonly known as a Baltimore chop The House of Thrills Forbes Field itself The bases are F O B The bases are loaded ull of Bucs probably borrowed from Red Barber s Full of Brooklyns Tweener a hit to the left or right field gap and thus between the fielders We had em alllll the way or The Buccos had em alllll the way A way to say that the

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