Longtime Pirates fan gives a strong voice to the NHL

Tag : Voice Announcer

Just as Sidney Crosby has become the face of hockey, Doc Emrick,passionate Pirates fan and one-time Penguins correspondent for theBeaver County Times, has become the voice of the sport.
In both cases, the game couldn't be in better hands.
Thanks, in part, to Crosby's passionate play and Emrick'spassionate announcing, the NHL is making progress with televisionviewers. The recently completed Stanley Cup playoffs were a ratingssuccess by NHL standards, but still pale next to the NFL, MLB andNBA.
Emrick, a Hoosier by birth and Pirates fan by virtue of Bob Princeand the powerful signal of KDKA Radio, has become the voice ofhockey. His regular gig is as the television play-by-play announcerfor the New Jersey Devils. When the Devils aren't playing, he'sliable to show up as the lead announcer on Versus, the NHL's cabletelevision partner. When NBC carries NHL games, Emrick is their guyin the booth. He also does the Olympics.
No announcer in any sport dominates the way Emrick does in hockey.
He did 123 games this season, including, as if his passion for thegame needed to be demonstrated, one on the college level.
"I have to keep in contact with these college kids," he said."They're our future. I'd do it for nothing."
That's what Emrick earned in his first hockey job, covering thePenguins for the Beaver County Times.
He was teaching at Geneva College, on his way to a doctorate inradio, television and film at Bowling Green University, in 1969-70and frequently making the trip from Beaver Falls to Pittsburgh tosee the Penguins.
"I approached the [Beaver County Times] and told them I'd coverevery Penguins home game. I didn't want paid. I just wanted to getinto the game. All I wanted was to meet the hockey players."
It was a labor of love, with the emphasis on labor.
"It's a good thing it was an afternoon paper," Emrick said over thephone the other day. "I would rewrite and rewrite. I wouldn't getthrough until 3 in the morning."
Emrick's passion for hockey led him to Bowling Green, where he waspromised the second period play-by-play duties of the college team.With his doctorate in hand, but with the intention of doing nothingwith it, Emrick sent out application to every minor league hockeyteam. He landed a job with the Port Huron Flags in 1973. After fouryears in Port Huron, Mich., he moved to Portland, Maine, the topminor league club of the Philadelphia Flyers. In three years he wasdoing cable TV for the Flyers. Then it was on to radio work withthe New York Rangers, back to the Flyers and then to the Devils,where he has been since 1993.
It didn't start out that way. He wanted to do baseball. Prince'sPirates broadcasts boomed into Indiana and Emrick became adedicated fan. He still recalls his first Pirates game.
"My parents took us to Wrigley Field. It was Aug. 9, 1959. ErnieBanks hit a home run for the Cubs. What I marveled at was [BillMazeroski]. On the double play, it looked like the ball was goingthrough a stove pipe. It changed directions by 90 degrees and itlooked like Maz never touched it.
"I still have the ticket stub from that day."
When the Penguins won Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final in Detroit tobring the series back to Pittsburgh, Emrick had an unknown surpriseawaiting him. Ben Bouma, a former Pirates employee working for NBC,set him up with a trip to PNC Park. He visited the Piratesclubhouse June 3 and admitted, "I'm like an 11 year old when I'maround the Pirates."
He threw out the first pitch and called it "a lifetime memory."
Emrick was pleased with the ratings NBC drew for the four games itcarried. Game 6 earned a 4.0 rating and the four games carried byNBC averaged a 3.2. That's an improvement that makes NBC and theNHL happy but also shows how far hockey lags behind football,baseball and basketball. The Super Bowl had a 32.8 rating, theWorld Series a 10.6 and last year's NBA Finals a 6.2. The first twogames between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers this yearaveraged an 8.6.
More alarming for hockey, it's not drawing well in the majormarkets. The top 10 markets for Game 6 included Buffalo, N.Y.;Richmond, Va.; Columbus, Ohio; and Fort Myers, Fla., but not NewYork, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco,Washington or Houston.
"I'm happy with hockey's niche," Emrick said. "We've had bettertimes in the past, like 1994 when the Rangers won, but I don'tthink there was a more important year than this one. For Game 5 wehad people joining us in great numbers at 11 p.m. and 11:30 andthey stayed. The numbers were in the 5.0 range for the rest of thegame [which ended at 12:45 a.m.].
"I'm heartened by what happened."
Emrick, 61, spends his summer in Michigan where he relaxes with hiswife, Joyce, follows the Pirates and awaits the start of the besttime of the year -- another hockey season.
NHL Awards
Evgeni Malkin is a Hart Trophy nominee as the National HockeyLeague passes out its hardware at 7 p.m. on Versus.