Raise YOUR Voice!

Bill S. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I’m 32 years old and I have been watching the Penguins since 5th grade.  I literally can remember turning the dial on the cable box by hand, looking for the Pens game on channel 53.  I can remember asking my parents for a TV in my room so that I could watch the Pens after they sent me to bed; in fact I distinctly remember watching Wendell Young stand on his head stopping over 50 shots against the Capitals one night.

I’ve watched the NHL make some dumb decisions in those years.  Remember the Wales and Campbell conferences; the Patrick, Smythe, Adams and Norris division?  I do, and so does Chris Berman from ESPN, as is evident on nearly every one of his appearances when he mentions the NFL’s “NFC Norris Division”.  I maintain that Gary Bettman’s plan to “Americanize” the NHL by stripping the traditional conference and division names away was the biggest blunder of his tenure as NHL commissioner.

How about the glow puck?  Remember that?  It was the technology that allowed the puck to glow right through the crowd when it came to the near-boards on television; not to be outdone by the laser trails that streamed from the puck as it was fired toward the net.  Luckily, and more recently, the league also scrapped the awful camera they tested at last years all-star game that was attached to the top of the near glass.  For one, it was an awful angle, and then once the broadcast switched to the high camera, the test camera was terribly distracting as it ran left and right across your line of sight.  I could go on and on, but I digress.

How do those dumb ideas relate to the subject matter of this website you ask?  Well, all of those dumb ideas combined, still do not equal the stupidity that Fox Sports Pittsburgh CEO Steve Tello displayed when he fired legendary, hall of fame broadcaster, Mike Lange in favor of the ponderous Paul Steigerwald.

Anyone that has watched Penguins hockey for more than a couple seasons knows how much better the television broadcasts were with Mike Lange at the helm.  My friends and I didn’t even think Steigerwald was any good as Mike Lange’s color commentator in the old days.  He just doesn’t have that “it” factor; there is nothing appealing about him at all. - quite the contrary actually.  I was trying to think of a good analogy for Steigerwalds commentary and I think I have a pretty accurate comparison.   Have you ever been in a room, where you could hear a conversation through the wall?  You can hear the tones and voices but you can’t make sense out of what if being said.  Well, I question if Steigerwald even watches the games he is supposed to be calling because he never makes any sense.

There is a reason Mike Lange is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and it’s not strictly based on his catch phrases.  Mr. Lange’s approach is just all around better to Seigerwald’s; first of all Mr. Lange is unbiased, and I’ve never heard more of a homer, or crybaby, or Penguin apologist than Steigerwald.  Mr. Lange has a fantastic and unique broadcast voice, and Steigerwald is a monotone bore.  Mr. Lange is an entertaining story teller, and Steigerwald is pretty creepy when he continuously talks so lovingly about Sidney Crosby, or the worn out story about Jordan Staal’s stick length; or when he calls Staal a “teradac-tyl”.  What may be more annoying about Steigerwald is that he can never properly pronounce certain players names; for your information, its Nick Antropov, not “An-trop-ov”.

I seriously wonder if he watches the games when he is calling them; I can’t tell you how many times he mistakes Jarko Ruutu for Sidney Crosby.  I mean, one guy skates like a top superstar, and the other skates like a fourth line grinder.  How about the fact that they skate with different line-mates; and yes I know sometimes the lines get mis-matched during changes, but give me a break, how do you mix those players up over and over?  Steigerwald has even mixed up the teams that the Penguins are on the ice with!!!

The person I feel the worst for is Bob Errey.  Some of my friends don’t like him either, but I differ in opinion.  Bob sees things that Steigerwald could never see if he had 10 people pointing it out to him.

Look folks.  The bottom line is that Mike Lange epitomizes Penguins hockey and should be on the television broadcasts.  He was unjustly fired by a guy that came to FSN Pgh in 2004 from Los Angeles and left in early 2008; a guy that didn’t have the best interest of the Penguins fans in mind.  Tello claimed that they needed a “fresh set of eyes” in the broadcast booth.  I guess he has never watched Steigerwalds broadcasts, because as I’ve already explained, he isn’t watching the same games we are.

The Penguins have had this motto, “Experience the Evolution”.  The only place the Penguins are not evolving is in the broadcast booth, and it’s no fault of the Penguins organization, it’s because of the idiotic decision making at Fox Sports Pittsburgh.

There is so much to look forward to with this team.  We have a new arena coming and we have the best player in hockey, but we have the worst television broadcaster in all of sports.  I truly feel that way, he is horrible.

Please Fox Pgh, put Mike Lange back on the television broadcasts; please correct your idiotic mistake!