October 30, 1975: In a public relations blunder that reverberates today, Pirates broadcasters Bob Prince and Nellie King were fired. It was a joint decision by the Pittsburgh Pirates, KDKA Radio, which carried the Pirates’ games, and Iron City Beer, the main sponsor for the broadcasts. It showed a shocking unawareness of the Pittsburgh landscape.<\/p>\n
Prince joined the Pirates broadcast team as the No. 2 man behind Rosey Rowswell in 1948. He became the Voice of the Pirates when Rowswell passed away in 1955. King, who pitched for the Pirates from 1954-57 under the name Nelson King<\/a>, became Prince\u2019s broadcast partner in 1967.<\/p>\n The broadcasts had a Prince and a King, but it was Prince who was king in Pittsburgh. Born in Los Angeles in 1916, Prince attended college at Pitt, Stanford, and Oklahoma, from which he graduated. He was a varsity letterman in swimming at Pitt and Oklahoma. Prince was smart enough to attend Harvard Law School for the 1939-40 academic year, but not motivated enough to stay past that year. However, it wasn\u2019t a total loss. At Harvard Law, he befriended fellow student Thomas P. Johnson, who would become instrumental in Prince\u2019s broadcasting career.<\/p>\n On April 15, 1941, The Pittsburgh Press<\/em> announced a \u201cnew sports program\u201d hosted by Prince and Beckley Smith on KQV Radio. No mention was made of Prince\u2019s past with Pitt or of anything else regarding Prince. Soon, Prince was all over town serving as emcee at various banquets and appearing in charity basketball games. The local media delighted in reporting on his numerous parking and speeding tickets while joking about his thin physique.<\/p>\n But he had an ally in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em> sports editor Al Abrams, whose daily \u201cSidelights on Sports\u201d column was essential morning reading despite not being especially well-written. Abrams praised Prince for \u201cdoing an excellent job of sportscasting\u201d on his radio show. In 1948, when Prince replaced Jack Craddock as Rowswell\u2019s sidekick to little fanfare, Abrams predicted he \u201cwill do an excellent job.\u201d Prince got the gig thanks to his Harvard Law pal Johnson, who became one of the Pirates\u2019 owners in 1946.<\/p>\n Rowswell entertained fans with a language of his own that only Pittsburghers understood. One day, legendary Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber suggested that he and Rowswell trade jobs for the first inning of a Dodgers-Pirates game. The listeners in Brooklyn had no idea what Rowswell was saying. (Prince pulled a similar stunt in 1972 with Montreal Expos broadcaster Claude Raymond<\/a>, who broadcast a half inning in French to Pittsburgh television viewers.) Following Rowswell\u2019s lead, Prince developed his own set of colorful expressions. \u201cKiss it good-bye!\u201d became his signature home run call. Sometimes he\u2019d blurt that out prematurely; listeners could only chuckle when he tried to save the moment with a cry of \u201cKiss it off the wall!\u201d On a close play on the bases, the runner was safe or out \u201cby a gnat\u2019s eyelash.\u201d A gap shot on Three Rivers Stadium\u2019s artificial surface was \u201ca bug loose on the rug.\u201d He was an unabashed rooter.<\/p>\n Prince was as famous for his crazy stunts as he was for his broadcasting. In 1957, at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, the former collegiate swimmer dove from his third-floor window into the swimming pool, egged on by Pirates third baseman Gene Freese<\/a>. In 1966, Prince picked up on Pirates trainer Danny Whelan pointing a \u201cgreen weenie\u201d (a plastic pickle that rattled) to hex opponents. Soon, green weenies were manufactured and sold, and the Forbes Field faithful, transistor radios in hand, would await Prince\u2019s instructions. On one occasion, the Dodgers\u2019 Don Drysdale<\/a> stepped off the mound because he couldn\u2019t pitch with all the rattling distracting him.<\/p>\n The Pirates\u2019 attendance was suffering in 1975, even though they were on their way to their fifth National League East Division title in six years. The Pirates were at a loss as far as what to do about it. Bob Smizik was the Pirates beat reporter for The Pittsburgh Press<\/em> from 1972-77. He told author Dan Joseph in Behind the Yoi<\/em>, \u201cMarketing was something the Pirates never heard of or chose not to employ.\u201d Prince to the rescue. The men in this town aren\u2019t stepping up, he told his radio audience, so it\u2019s up to the women. He urged them to pack the stadium and wave their babushkas (a head scarf worn by Polish and Russian women, still prevalent in a town not far removed from the mass immigration of the early 20th century). Prince called it \u201cBabushka Power.\u201d Attendance increased by almost 160,000 from 1974.<\/p>\n One-time broadcast partner Jim Woods<\/a> nicknamed Prince \u201cThe Gunner,\u201d reportedly for his fast-talking delivery. Prince later revealed that the name stemmed from a spring training incident when he offered to buy a woman a drink at a bar. Her jealous husband pointed a gun at his head. Prince insisted he was just being friendly.<\/p>\n Along the way, Prince described some of the greatest moments in Pirates history. There was Dale Long<\/a> hitting a home run in eight consecutive games in 1956. There was Harvey Haddix<\/a>\u2019s 12 perfect innings<\/a> against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959, only to lose the game in the unlucky 13th. Prince called no-hitters by Cliff Chambers<\/a>, Bob Moose<\/a>, and Dock Ellis<\/a>, the latter while under the influence of LSD<\/a>. He described the World Series championship seasons of 1960<\/a> and 1971<\/a>. As was the custom at the time, Prince called both Series on the national NBC television and radio broadcasts. Each time, he conducted the clubhouse interviews after Game 7. Each time, he forgot he was on national TV and was supposed to be impartial, or maybe he didn\u2019t care. The hilariously chaotic 1960 clubhouse interviews are well worth five minutes and 44 seconds of your time.<\/p>\nBeginnings<\/h3>\n
A Gnat\u2019s Eyelash<\/h3>\n
Green Weenies and Babushkas<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Close Encounters of the Gunner Kind<\/strong><\/h3>\n