Pittsburgh Sports Legends - Bob Prince
- Thread starter Alphalion75
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"The Gunner", grew up listening to him on the radio, the best.
There’s a Chapter on Prince and Myron Cope in a book I coauthored titled “Legendary Sports Figures.” Available Through Sunbury Press.
I loved the man. As a kid, in the day's before televised games were ubiquitous, he opened my eyes to the magical world of baseball, painting visual images I never forgot. "Kiss it good-bye", "by a gnat's eyelash," " a dying quail", "he lit up the lights on broadway", " we had em' all the way", and so many more. The voice is gone, but the memories will last a lifetime. Rest in Peace Gunner.Bob Prince - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Remember "can o' corn, can o' corn, 210 lbs. of golden bantam?" That one didn't end up so well.
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Bob Prince lived in my transistor radio and brought the Pirates into my childhood. I often fell asleep with the radio under my pillow during west coast games. 1960, '71 and '79 were amazingly special for a team that knew despair and losing and The Gunner was at his finest. The Hal Smith homer in '60 tying the World Series game 7 against the hated Yankees provided Prince with his finest vocal moments only to be topped by Billy "The Kid" Mazeroski creating an immortal Pittsburgh Pirate piece of history. And all the Gunner could say was, 'we had 'em all the way"!
He was Pirate baseball . The Gunner .Bob Prince - Wikipedia
There were so many , and I lived and died with it . I miss him .
Alpha thanks for posting this as you have the others . I got my first AM/FM radio in 1970 and listened to Pirate baseball and the gunner .Bob Prince - Wikipedia
Was it Matty Alou who dropped that one?
Back in 1979, I was fresh out of college and working at a radio station in Ebensburg. My boss wanted to have a golf tournament fundraiser so he invited Bob Prince, Jackie Sherrill, and Bill Hillgrove to come. I had the pleasure of picking them up in Monroeville. I was like a fly on the wall listening to Prince tell the others stories about Willie and Manny.. What a character he was. However, I have never liked Pitt again after meeting Sherrill. All he did every time he opened his mouth was bad mouth Joe. I still have a few cigarette butts Prince left in my car (LOL).
Late at night we could get KDKA in western Michigan and my dad and I would listen to the Pirate games. Great memories listening to the Gunner.
I was watching it on TV, thinking there goes the pennant. Fortunately the Pirates recovered well.
I was watching as well and thinking the same. Another Bob Prince moment happened while I was listening to a Pirates/Giants game one evening while at Penn State. Bucs were ahead something like 7-1 in the ninth and the Giants started to mount a rally. Bob kept saying, don't worry about a thing folks, don't worry about a thing. When it got to be 7-6 he says, now you can start worrying. Sure enough the Giants win the game, I think on the next AB. My Philadelphia friends with me at the time had a great laugh at my expense.
A couple more: He combed the cockleberries off that one, open the window Aunt Minnie it's comin' through, a 303 can of golden bantam. One of my favorite people from my youth in the 50's and 60's. I just couldn't get enough Pirate baseball on the radio back then. Used to fall asleep with a transistor radio on my pillow when they played on the west coast.
I was a caddy at Fox Chapel CC in the late 60's and early 70's. He has in a group that I caddied for which included Myron Cope and Nick Perry (from WTAE bowling on Saturdays).
On the 16th hole, he hits a hook (he was a Lefty) and hits a person on the driving range. The driving range was to the far right of the 16th hole about 150 yards out. He was so gracious with the person that got hit.
He gave both of us a extra $10 tip since we were Pirates fans. The saying that I remember the most was "We had em all the way". He and Nellie King were a very good broadcast team in my view.
On the 16th hole, he hits a hook (he was a Lefty) and hits a person on the driving range. The driving range was to the far right of the 16th hole about 150 yards out. He was so gracious with the person that got hit.
He gave both of us a extra $10 tip since we were Pirates fans. The saying that I remember the most was "We had em all the way". He and Nellie King were a very good broadcast team in my view.
Not to be a dick, but I think the “Open the window Aunt Minnie” description of a home run was actually attributed to Rosey Rosewell, the Gunner’s predecessor and, I guess, mentor. Prince did aid by dropping a tray to sound like breaking glass!
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This is correct.Not to be a dick, but I think the “Open the window Aunt Minnie” description of a home run was actually attributed to Roses Rosewell, the Gunner’s predecessor and, I guess, mentor. Prince did aid by dropping a tray to sound like breaking glass!
I was young. It was soo long ago! So easy to mix commentators!Not to be a dick, but I think the “Open the window Aunt Minnie” description of a home run was actually attributed to Roses Rosewell, the Gunner’s predecessor and, I guess, mentor. Prince did aid by dropping a tray to sound like breaking glass!
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