Early life

Later career

May 3, 1985

Honors and awards

Gunnerisms

• "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.
• "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 didn't 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 Rowswell, 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 wasn't a sponsor, Prince -- who didn't 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 “could 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 bases are F.O.B.": The bases are loaded (“Full of Bucs,” probably borrowed from Red Barber's "Full of Brooklyns").
• "The House of Thrills": Forbes Field itself.
• "'Tweener": a hit to the left or rightfield 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 Pirates never trailed in a game. Also used humorously and ironically after the Pirates scored an improbable, come-from-behind victory.