Longtime Piston Announcer Is Walking on Airwaves

The voice of the Detroit Pistons had a bit more lilt in it Wednesday morning, a bit more chirp.

For the last 23 years, George Blaha has been bringing the play-by-play of the games to a network of approximately 50 radio and television stations in Michigan and northern Ohio. If he keeps going for a while, with his distinctive staccato delivery and his unmatched knowledge of the game, people will start talking about him in Chick Hearn-like terms.

(OK, so maybe “a while” when Hearn is the target means 30 more years).

The long lockout was tough on Blaha. He is a guy who, from the time he was old enough to listen to sports broadcasts on radio, wanted only to do sports broadcasts on the radio. As a college student, he did play-by-play constantly--watching games courtside, watching games on TV. He even did play-by-play in the shower.

When he got his undergraduate degree, his father, a doctor, indicated the family would like more than a guy blabbing into a microphone. So Blaha dutifully went off and got a master’s degree in business from Michigan, a degree that usually opens doors to the high-paying corporate world. But with his advanced degree from Michigan, Blaha went directly to some 10-watt radio station in the northern reaches of Michigan and began doing play-by-play, which is all he ever wanted to do.

When this season’s lockout came, it didn’t matter to Blaha that his contract dictated that he get paid through next October. He wasn’t doing what he always had done, and always wanted to do.

So Wednesday morning’s settlement announcement was emotional for him.

“I now believe in Santa Claus,” he said.

Blaha said that Dodger announcer Vin Scully has best summarized how he felt about this situation.

Blaha quoted Scully: “When you find something you love to do, you’ll never work another day in your life.”

“Not working has been like work for me,” Blaha said. “At first, I was in shock. We weren’t playing basketball, and it was time. As it went along, I kind of went into a twilight zone, a numb kind of feeling where you wake up in the morning and you feel like you are supposed to be somewhere, but there’s nowhere to go.”

Blaha said that he was not a happy camper, but he didn’t realize how bad it had become until Wednesday, after the settlement announcement, when his best friend, Mary Krause, told him it was nice to see him smile again.

“Best thing about this,” Blaha said, “is that, even as old a guy as I am, it humbled me to realize how fortunate I was, and am, to be doing what I want to do every day.”

Blaha heard the news while working out at a gym near his house.

“The maintenance guy had just come in and said to me something about how I’m gonna have a lousy winter,” Blaha said, “and that very moment, the CNN anchor came on and said they had an agreement. The only thing that bothered me was that I had been on the same treadmill six weeks ago when CNN came on and said they thought there was an agreement.”

This time, barring an incredible reversal, the winter of Blaha’s discontent won’t be, after all.

“I’m happy for everybody who is involved in the game in any way, shape or form,” Blaha said. “And I mean beyond the players and coaches and fans and broadcasters and writers.

“I mean the many people whose daily bread relies on us playing, people who sell T-shirts, and the people who run the watering holes near the arenas--places, of course, that I never go into.”

Yup, the NBA was back, as well as the Blaha voice, sense of humor.

And thirst.