You Stay Classy, Paul Steigerwald
December 22, 2009 13 Comments
Paul Steigerwald is generally not one of my favorite broadcasters. Last night, however, he used his opportunity to call Marty Brodeur’s all-time shutout record setting game to make fun of one of the game’s legendary characters, Hobey Baker. Pensburgh has the scoop:
You think that was a bad joke? Listen to this zinger by Paul Steigerwald on FSN (with about 1:40 left in the game) Referring to how hard former Hobey Baker trophy winner Mike Mottau got hit, Steiggy quiped: “Not as hard as Hobey Baker went down though — he went down in a plane crash!” He then laughed and apologized for joking about “how he left us” before laughing some more. Yes!
In what world does Steigerwald think this is funny? In what world does anyone find this funny? We typically have a pretty sick sense of humor, but come on man. Not cool.
Here’s the video of it. Sigh:
Puck The Media 
How this guy still has a job is amazing…then again Bob Errey still has one there too. It does not say much for Pittsburgh that their broadcasting is beyond putrid.
Yeah I had the FSN Pittsburgh feed of the game on Centre Ice, I couldn’t believe what he said. He was also desperately saying “Shutout” every 5 or 10 seconds for the last 2 minutes of the game as well.
Lighten up, it was a joke.
It’s okay if he’s joking. We’re just annoyed that he thinks he can say this type of thing on the air. It’s borderline braindead.
Joking about someone dying in a plane crash on the 91st anniversary of said death is hardly funny or a joking matter in general.
Hardly funny? maybe, I chuckled though… Poor taste, for sure. Worth an apology, yes. Worth getting your blood pressure up for.. No. Steiggy and Lange are the voices of the pens, I enjoy listening to them even if they make some dumb off the wall comments every once in a while. Maybe a TV monitor will fall on his head during a broadcast… oh wait that already happened…
It’s sad that the great game of hockey is being broadcast by guys like this who have no sense of what is right. Sure this is a small incident but at the very least he should be saying a public sorry.
Too soon.
Too soon for what Kevin. Surely it’s never too soon for an apology when you put your foot in your mouth like this guy did.
It’s not that big of a deal, but just shows how terrible the Pens announcers are.I’ll
Sucks for them, I get the pleasure of hearing Mickey Redmond for my games.
Seriously, get fired for it? I’m willing to bet that 99% of the people who are upset about this didn’t even know baker died in a plane crash prior to hearing all the uproar about what was said the other night. Get over it, you didn’t even know the guy. Unless you’re a surviving Baker relative with a legitimate feeling of harm done because of this, go find some other way to save the world you self-righteous pansies.
Paul has done more to inform the fans of hockey about the amazing career of Hobie Baker than ANY other broadcaster in the NHL. Countless times he has explained the story and done between period pieces. Bob Errey laughed before he could finish the story and messed it up.
Seriously, as mentioned above everyone needs to lighten up a bit. If anything this joke was more of an insult to comedy itself than to the memory of Hobey Baker. Bob and Steiggy are some of the more classy and entertaining broadcasters out there who add a little comedy (though at times painful) to break up the monotony of the average game. Did anyone else hear them make fun of Sean Avery by singing “I wear my sunglasses at night”? It was hilarious. I find it way more offensive every time I have to hear Joe Beninati use the word “stanza” or “Tally”. Now that’s an actual insult to the great game of hockey.