Editorial: We won’t see another Stan Savran

With the passing of Pittsburgh broadcasting icon Stan Savran, the spotlight has turned on his place in the pantheon of talent that called or commented on Steel City sports teams over the years.

More than one person — including Savran’s former “SportsBeat” co-host Guy Junker — has called to mind the image of a famous monument chiseled with local legends.

“We’ve had some really talented sports broadcasters in Pittsburgh — Bob Prince, Myron Cope, Mike Lange — and Stan is certainly on the Mount Rushmore of that,” Junker said.

It’s a fair image. Prince was the godfather of baseball, spending 28 years at the mic painting pictures of what happened during the Pirates’ heyday. Cope’s language and patter were as much a part of Steelers games as an ironclad defense. The only thing that moved faster than a puck on ice was Lange’s Penguins play-by-play.

But Savran wasn’t the voice of a team or a game. Savran was the voice of the fans — and by extension, the voice of the whole black-and-gold region. For almost 50 years, he was the equivalent of that guy at the bar who always knows the answer to any sports question. Maybe you didn’t have a beer with Savran while watching a game, but you kind of felt like you did.

Will there ever be another sports voice like that?

Junker called Savran “the last of a dying breed,” and he’s right. It isn’t just that Savran and Prince and Cope are gone and Lange is retired. It’s that the process that made them such a part of both the sports world and people’s everyday lives is changing.

Few sports journalists can imagine putting five decades into a single city or a single team. Scoring celebrations are now more about slickly pre-produced music and video than the lightning-fast delivery of a dedicated color commentator. Television and radio now often focus on putting former players or coaches on air instead of that guy who seems like you shared some Iron City brews while criticizing the Pirates.

There’s a reason for it. Sports journalism, like all journalism, has changed. The games themselves have become more polished and corporate and expensive. When Savran started his career, a ticket to see the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium could be had for $9. The cheapest seats at Acrisure Stadium for September are $134. Also, news outlets are acquired like Monopoly properties by bigger players, and the human assets are often the first to go.

To develop a following and the fact base of a Savran is to grow your career in the place you cover, to live and breathe the games and to have the luxury of longevity. That’s how you get your face on the mountaintop.

It just seems unlikely we will see another Savran anytime soon.