One of the most colorful announcers in sports history, long-time radio voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bob Prince, died on June 10 of complications following cancer surgery on his tongue.
Prince was the Bucs' play-by-play announcer for KDKA-Pittsburgh for 28 years before he and his partner, Nelli King, were fired following the 1975 season. Born July 1, 1916, Prince was let go because of personality conflicts with station management.
Some of the popular lingo of the Pirates broadcaster was 'kiss it goodbye' after a Buc roundtripper, 'he lit up the lights on Broadway' after a called third strike, and 'We had 'em all the way,' which was said after a huge Pirates lead was nearly squandered in the ninth inning.
In the early 1970s, Prince devised a whammy for Pirate opponents. He would dangle a 'green weanie' from the press box as an enemy batter stepped to the plate in a crucial situation.
Prince attended 15 different colleges in the '30s and '40s and finally earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford and the University of Pittsburgh and Oklahoma. He also spent one year in Harvard Law School before entering broadcasting in 1941.
While in school, Prince earned great acclaim as a championship swimmer. Years later, he went overboard in accepting a dare. He successfully (he survived) dove into a swimming pool from an open window of one of the higher floors at the Chase Park-Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.
The eccentric sportscaster was also known to agitate ballplayers. After the Pirates were finally able to knock out old nemesis Don Drysdale in a home contest with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Prince leaned out from his broadcast booth and shouted, "We got you, you big donkey! We finally beat you!" Drysdale countered by grabbing some gravel from the warning track and fired it up at Prince.
While Prince was always fired up for his Pirates, whether on or off the field, his awards speak for themselves. He was selected sportscaster of the year 14 consecutive times and is a good bet to be voted into the broadcasters' wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
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