Pirates’ Frattare in Focus
August 27, 2007
About the only good thing about the Pirates’ current stretch of 15 straight losing seasons has been the stability in the broadcast booth.
A native of upstate New York, Lanny Frattare, 59, is in his 32nd year as the “voice of the Pirates.”
Frattare was the subject of a cover story in Focus, the Tribune-Review Sunday magazine. According to writer John Grupp, Frattare has now called 4,800 games, more than any broadcaster in the franchise’s history, including the legendary “Gunner,” Bob Prince.
It hasn’t all been peanuts and Cracker Jack. The Ithaca College graduate, who shares play-by-play duties with Greg Brown, talks openly about problems in his marriage that forced him to sleep on manager Jim Leyland’s couch, and a struggle with clinical depression that kept him off the air for 10 days in 2004.
Oh, yeah, and then there was the time he accidentally “killed” James Earl Jones ….
