Pittsburgh Radio: Mike Lange Retires From Penguins Play-By-Play

Mike Lange

After 46 years in the broadcast booth, the legendary Mike Lange has called his last Penguins game.

TribLiive.com reports the team announced Monday that Lange, 73, will not return to play-by-play duties when the season begins in the fall. Lange will continue to provide commentary and voiceover work on the team’s radio network.

“This isn’t like something happened to him physically out of left field, thank God. I’ve been preparing myself for the last couple years for this,” said Phil Bourque, Lange’s longtime broadcast partner and close friend. “But still, when it becomes final-final, it tugs at your heartstrings because you know how much Mikey’s heart is into what he does.

“As much as you want to be happy because he is going to be around and still be involved, it is tough knowing that this is it, that he’s not going to be in that seat to my left again.”

Lange has been ramping down his schedule since 2017, when the team announced that Josh Getzoff would be handling certain road games.

Lange called only a handful of games after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Getzoff, 32, will take the broadcasting baton from Lange, and under different circumstances, he could be walking into a tricky situation, trying to replace a legend. But Lange took Getzoff under his wing and never missed a chance to publicly give him his stamp of approval.

A native of Sacramento, Calif., Lange worked four years calling minor league games in the Western Hockey League before joining the Penguins in 1974.

In 2001, Lange received the Foster Hewitt award for broadcasting from the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2019, the Penguins named the press box at PPG Paints Arena after him.

On the surface, Lange’s claims to fame are his signature goal calls, from “Michael, Michael, motorcycle” to “Scratch my back with a hacksaw.”

“I spend a lot of time deciding if and when I want to use a phrase,” Lange said in 2017. “And if I do use it, I want to really use it. The fans probably have a favorite, but they are all my favorites. It gives me a thrill to use the phrases at the right time.”