Robert Ferris Prince (July 1, 1916 - June 10, 1985) was an American radio and television sportscaster and commentator best known for his 28-year stint as the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball club, with whom he earned the nickname “The Gunner” and became a cultural icon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Prince was one of the most distinct, colorful and popular voices in sports broadcast history, known for his gravel voice, unabashed style and clever nicknames and phrases, which came to be known as "Gunnerisms." His unique manner influenced a number of broadcasters after him, a list that includes Pittsburgh Penguins voice Mike Lange and Pittsburgh Steelers color analyst Myron Cope among others.
Prince called Pirates games from 1948 to 1975, including the World Series championship years of 1960 and 1971. Nationally, Prince broadcast the 1960, 1966, and 1971 World Series and the 1965 All-Star Game for NBC.
Prince was born in Los Angeles. 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 joined Rosey Rowswell in the Pirates' broadcast booth as a commentator in 1948, and he was promoted to the top spot shortly after Rowswell’s death in February, 1955.
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.
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!" 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.
In 1966, Prince concocted 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).
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. Finally, in 1975, Prince and sidekick Nellie King were fired, a decision that Pirates fans did not take 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 Prince was not rehired despite their efforts.
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.
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.
KDKA and the Pirates decided to make Prince a member of the regular broadcast team in 1985. 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 Jason promptly homered.
In 1985, it was a Pirate team that was not very talented and was not a playoff contender. Willie Stargell had retired, 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 continued to announce "the middle three" innings of several home games for the next four weeks, but grew too weak to continue and died a week later of mouth cancer.
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.
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