Mike Lange helped make the Penguins what they are

He is the reason I started to watch hockey.

Mike Lange was as responsible for making the Pittsburgh Penguins what they are, and how popular they have become, as any player that has ever played for the organization. Given some of the names that have played for the Penguins in their history that is a big statement. It might even seem like an overstatement. But I can assure you, it is not.

Lange did something that only a very small, very select group of announcers can do.

He became synonymous with the team.

He brought people in and hooked them.

While Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were the actors in the spotlight, Lange was the narrator that really helped make the magic happen.

Players come and go.

Coaches get hired and fired.

Some are great, some are not.

But announcers like Lange become the one constant with your team that you can always count on every season. If you get lucky enough to get a good one, they take the game to a completely different level.

Lange was one of them.

Lange died on Wednesday night at the age of 76.

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I know how important Lange was to making people fall in love with the game — and the team — because I am one of the examples of it.

I knew who Mike Lange was before I knew who Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr or Paul Coffey were. I knew his goal-calls and sayings before I knew the names of the players on the team or all of the rules of the game.

My family was not a hockey family when I was growing up. Everybody watched football and baseball, with Steelers games being the big family event. Hockey just was not something that was on anybody’s radar. Because they did not watch it, seven-year-old Adam did not watch it.

It was not until I was in first grade that a classmate who sat next to me (Mike Ward) would tell me about his own hockey playing, while also trying to update me on what happened with the Penguins the night before. Being a typical kid and wanting to fit in with the kids around me, I started watching games on my own. And before I knew what was actually happening on the ice, my seven-year-old brain was absolutely captivated by this guy on the TV stringing together words in an order that did not make sense to me, but still made me laugh.

What exactly is a rusty razor?

Who is Sam, and why are you buying him a drink?

Sir, why is this cow kicking you?

A rented mule? What the hell is that?

I thought the Wreckin’ Ball was just how he described the way a certain guy was playing because he kept knocking people over, and not literally Mark Recchi (who was actually knocking people over).

I had no idea, I was seven and trying to learn a new game on the fly. I barely knew anything in life let alone the roster of a hockey team or the finer points of a new game that I had never watched.

But they all made me laugh and kept bringing me back to hear what he was going to say next, all while becoming utterly fascinated with what I was actually seeing on the TV.

When I got my first hockey stick (the plastic neon orange blade with the holes along the top) I would find myself saying those things when I would score on the invisible goalie in the driveway.

Eventually, though, I started to learn hockey. I started to learn the rules. And Lange was the soundtrack to all of it and, honestly, the best possible teacher for it.

It was a great time to start getting into hockey. It was the 1990-91 season and the Penguins were on their way to their first ever championship. Every game was a big deal. At the time, none of this was registering with me. It was just a new thing that I was into and that I enjoyed.

As I got older, as I started to gain an understanding of the hows and whys of life, I started to realize how much of a rarity Lange was. When I would watch games on national TV, whether it was a Penguins game or two random teams, the people talking didn’t bring the same energy. They didn’t talk about the game the same. It was just …. different. Worse.

But by that point, my love hockey was now firmly in place and that started to take priority over everything else. But Lange was still a huge part of it.

Eventually I became an adult and found myself in a mediocre sports writing career, with hockey being the primary focus. The kid that never knew what hockey was, was suddenly getting credentials to the Civic Arena. It started off with a random game or two each season, before finally being there enough, and proving myself enough to not be a total jackass, that the Penguins would just say, “we will just credential you for the entire season.”

After a few years of briefly passing Lange in the hallway and quietly nodding my head, I finally had an opportunity to just say hello. It was after a random regular season game (I do not remember who was playing, who won, who scored, or any of the details of the game) and I was one of the last people to leave the media level. While I was waiting for the media elevator I heard some wheels rolling down the hallway, only to see Mike Lange turn the corner pulling the wheeled suitcase he brought with him to every game.

Since I joined this industry there have been two people that I was somewhat intimidated and afraid to introduce myself (because why would these people want to talk to ME?!) only to have them turn out to be the nicest, kindest people you could ever imagine.

Mike Lange was one of them.

(Doc Emrick was the other.)

I can’t remember what exactly I said, but I think it was something about the game. And he was engaging, and then I just officially introduced myself, told him how I grew up listening to him and how much of an inspiration it was, and that I was always a huge fan. I figured he would just say, “oh thank you, that is very kind” and leave it at that.

Then he talked my ear off, asking me questions about myself (“I’ve seen you around, who do you write for?”) and telling stories the entire walk out of the building.

I never really got to know him much more than that over the years, other than a passing hello in the hallway, or a brief exchange whenever Brian Metzer or Bob Grove would invite me in to be a guest on the first intermission.

Even that brought an entirely new thrill because it was then that I got my first look at the headset. Oh my gosh, the headset. While Phil Bourque and the booth producer had new, updated technology, Lange never stopped using this old, mangled looking headset that looked like it came out of the 1960s (it probably did).

I honestly think it added to the feel of his radio broadcasts.

Which leads me to another important talking point — his career comes down to two different eras. TV Mike and radio Mike. I grew up knowing Lange as the TV voice of the Penguins, a job he held until 2006 when Fox Sports Pittsburgh did not renew his contract. It was hugely unpopular with fans, and presumably with Lange himself.

But it was also the launching point for the second phase of his career when he officially joined the Penguins as their radio voice.

As good as he was on TV, I feel like he was even better on radio. It seemed to jumpstart his career and give it a second wind, and it also gave him the opportunity to call all three Stanley Cups of the Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin era. Had he remained on TV, that never happens.

We also would not have gotten Lange at, what is in my opinion, his absolute best in Games 6 and 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final against Detroit.

His call at the end of Game 6 is, for me, still one of the best Lange moments.

Absolute legend.

Every bit as legendary as any player that ever played for the team.