Gold on this video. Besides the jerseys, Bob Prince on play by play plus rare video of the Cleveland Barons and from Richfield coliseum. A ghost team reappears!
I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before. As a 16 year old kid I went to as many games as I could I fell in love with hockey because of the Barons. It hurt worse to lose the barons than when the Browns left because you knew the NHL wasn’t coming back.
Bob Prince doing the game on ch. 53, so much fun too watch and listen to. I believe this was his 2nd game. The Pens televised many more games on ch. 53 than on ch.11. I recall Prince got better as the season wore on. Great to relive these memories and great gratitude to you for keeping those memories alive for those of us who experienced it.
You can definitely tell he's a bit uncertain following the movement of the puck, helluva challenge for a newcomer to hockey play-by-play. Fun to hear Prince, given his legendary status calling Pirates games.
I believe Bob Prince also did Pittsburgh Steelers football for a while during this period, but I don't know if he called any of their 1970's Super Bowls.
I think WPXI Channel 11 only televised about fifteen Penguins away games a year in the team's early years, but WPGH doubled that schedule, to at least 30 regular season games a year,probably all on the road.
I love this play-by-play announcer. He sounds like he could be sitting by his living room window describing a really fancy Pontiac driving by. You’d expect to hear phrases like “How ‘bout that?” “Isn’t that something?” or “Friends, let me tell you about the good folks at All-State.”
the announcer is Bob Prince, who became a Hall of Fame announcer for the PIttsburgh Pirates. He called two world series victories in 1960 and 1971 and watched the great Roberto Clemente play more games than anyone that ever lived on the planet.
From a guy who lives in "hockey country", Bob Prince is admittedly, a legend in baseball circles, but frankly, he was terrible calling hockey games. No objectivity whatsoever
Bob is unquestionably a legendary baseball guy dropped into a hockey game. The colour guy knows the personnel but Bob is learning on the go. At one point he says “they’re going up the court”.
So awesome to see these old games. Great quality on this tape (bonus - 'Spinner' Spencer lol). I know hockey is faster now and I love it, but this brings back so many memories of being a kid and watching this every Saturday night with my dad.
Michael Leroy we tried to bring it back but Crosby got hurt in 2011. Black and gold it better and has a better history. Blue colors were nice but the pens were in horrible shape here.
The Penguins should have never switched from these beautiful blue uniforms. I get why they did, but I always liked the Pens uniforms of the mid-late 70s. Also, this is awesome to see so much footage from a Barons home game!
Truly awesome watching the Barons and listening to Prince call a hockey game. He was a great announcer even though bias. It was a sweet game, Bob. Thanks.
Great memories of heading up to Richfield and watching the Barons when we were in college. They had a student discount and most nights sat right on the glass for like $10 a pop. Maruk was a great player and Meloche was a decent goalie., the rest of the barons not so much. One specific memory was watching Mike Fidler always checking his reflection off the glass to make sure the hair was perfect.
Great sightlines for hockey in that building--not a bad seat in the house. (Most of them were always empty, of course, too.) I got to cover games there on occasion for Kent State radio and TV. Meloche was a willing and articulate interview subject. Al MacAdam was another good player for Cleveland that went on to have a nice career as a North Star.
Here's hoping more and more Barons footage appears , slowly but surely it seems to be coming out. Understandably more highlights will probably come tv news archives but I'm certain more is out there .
"The Gunner," Bob Prince called a number of Pens games. The sport was too fast for him and a cause of frustration as he perpetually had trouble with the players' names or keeping up the description with the pace of play. Good stuff!
I actually liked the announcer. I thought he was a bit odd and zany at times but I liked it. He sounded an old time boxing or horse racing announcer dong hockey
@@Pensfan1618 The Pirates had fired Prince and he had done hockey years and years earlier. The Pens were desperate for anything that might get them more attention then, amidst bankruptcy situations and the dominance of the Steelers in the market. And, Prince WAS a legendary baseball "voice" who was still beloved in Pittsburgh. But--alas--he was TERRIBLE (as in towel) at calling hockey. As a huge Penguin fan, I was horrified.
I've spent decades wanting to hear Prince on a Penguins game. He's clearly not entirely comfortable but it's not as bad as legend has it. This was not Prince's first experience broadcasting hockey, however. He had done some radio work for Pittsburgh Hornets games on WWSW radio in the 1950s.
Bob Prince clearly uncomfortable, but fun to listen to. I think Bob's problem is that he was used to doing a radio type broadcast where the listener doesn't see the video and he's trying to "paint the picture" as the viewer can see the picture. Also getting familiar with the players and their jersey numbers.
@@clintscroggs65 - if you were at the April 9, 1978 game it was indeed the last game of the season and the Penguins won 3-2. Maruk had both Barons goals.
I watched that game in a dorm as a junior in college and I swear Bob Prince said something like "Ron Stackhouse has the puck in his backcourt" earlier in the telecast.
This is good stuff! Finding extended game footage with the Cleveland Barons is about as difficult as finding a hockey rink in the Sahara desert. Excellent quality footage. Cool to see Brian "Spinner" Spencer too. Though you have to wonder if this was the first hockey game that the announcer ever saw. Thank you so much for posting.
The announcer was Bob Prince, who was the play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates for many years. Hockey was not his forte as you have noticed :)
While the Barons didn't last in the NHL, the Barons name returned to Cleveland in their one-tìme AHL team. There's also talk of a possible NHL franchise coming back to Cleveland and the Barons name is the most popular among the public for a name for the team.
Long lost and obscure NHL Trivia: During the Barons two years of existence, Pittsburgh was the only team that Cleveland failed to beat at least once. Hard to believe, considering how inept the Barons were and how strong the Montreal, Boston, and Philadelphia franchises were in that era. But...there were only 18 teams in the league back then, too.
That's what made rooting for the Barons/Seals so frustrating for me. They were capable of pulling off upsets against top teams but would turn around and get clobbered by another bottom dweller two nights later.
Wayne Merrick was the luckiest guy on the ice in this game. Shortly afterwards he'd get traded to the New York Islanders and win four Stanley Cups. And also spotting Jim Neilson, the Big Chief, ex-Ranger star defenseman, playing out the string in Cleveland. And Bob Prince comments on John Baby's name. Imagine having to grow up with "Baby" as your last name.
I always thought that the Barons had some of the sweetest colors and one of the coolest logos they just couldn't get out of their own way I wouldn't mind seeing them come back though.
Back in the 70's in Canada, this game would have been nothing more than a score in the newspaper the next day. Teams like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Washington were totally exotic to my friends and I, because we never got to see them play. We only got one game a week on television, Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, and they only ever showed Montreal, Toronto and occasionally Vancouver, and some other original six team, or possibly Buffalo, or Los Angeles. It was so much better than today, when every game is on every single night.
Buffalo Televised Road games in the 70's, and living close to Hamilton Ontario, We got to see all those teams you mentioned. Minnesota and St.Louis also.
@@handlzus7018 ya growing up in Edmonton was a whole other story. Quite frankly, I don't remember even watching Oiler games on TV when they were in the WHA. I may be wrong, but I think they were only on radio in their WHA days. So literally, we got one game a week, the HNIC game on Saturday. Quite frankly, I think that was a whole lot better than being able to watch every single game, like you can today.
You described it perfectly, Dean. Living on Long Island, my friends and I did indeed find many teams "exotic" and preferred to go to Islander games where the opponent was any of the '67 expansion or more recent expansion teams, rather than Montreal, Chicago, Boston, etc. I did join the Barons Booster Club and got to meet the members at a booster convention in NY City in 1978, On the televised NHL Game of the Week in the US, it was almost always original six teams and once a year you might get St. Louis, Minnesota, Philly and Buffalo before they were good, but never the Kings, Seals, Canucks, Penguins, Caps, Scouts, Barons, Flames, etc. You really had to work to be a hockey fan and get info on these teams and a weekly subscription to The Hockey News was a must!
@@pjet8042 very cool to hear from an American perspective what it was like for you. I remember when I started reading THN in the 80's, one of my favorite sections was the section on NCAA hockey. I loved the 2 games against the same opponent, in a weekend format. That period, before the expansion of cable television, when you only got to see a few, or even one game a week, was so much better than today. The anticipation for Saturday night, or Sunday afternoon for NFL or MLB, was awesome, and made those games so much more meaningful.
@@pocobull The west coast was such a far-flung outpost for hockey in the early 70's that we often didn't get game results in the NY newspapers until 2 days later because of the time difference. I was a California Seals fan and it was crazy not knowing what my team did the day after a game in Oakland. We had an all-news radio station that would do sports every half-hour but with 2 NY teams in football, basketball and hockey they often wouldn't read off the out-of-town scores. I guess the NBC Game of the Week had one game a year with the early Sabres because Buffalo was on the east coast, because we never got to see the Canucks. The Seals were finally featured in their last season before moving to Cleveland, in a game at Chicago. Couldn't believe my eyes. The Rangers would televise a handful of road games every season on a local station and amazingly they occasionally had one from the west coast so I did stay up late to see games in LA, Vancouver and Oakland. The Islanders did have one televised game in their first season, and it was an incredible 9-7 win at Boston. Speaking of 2 games against the same opponent, that was one of the innovative features of the WHA. Because the league was a lot more spread out than the NHL with teams in Alberta, Winnipeg and Houston and later Calgary, Phoenix and Birmingham, east coast teams would sometimes play 2 games in those cities before moving on, to save travel costs. The second games must have been wild because players didn't have to wait until later in the season to avenge a grudge...
I would love to see the 1977 Flyers-Barons game in which Tom Bladdon scored 8 points for Philly (4 G, 4 A). Flyers won 11 to 1 and Randy Holt of the Barons beat up Flyers' Mel Bridgman.
I don't know that the Barons coming back is a good idea. Yes, it would be really cool. The problem is, the city doesn't have, and will not approve an NHL suitable rink in the city. That will leave a similar problem to the original Barons, who had a suitable stadium, but it is located 45 minutes outside of Cleveland. On top of that, the Blue Jackets already have much of Ohio's hockey following, plus the Red Wings and Penguins both have a decent following there. It just wouldn't do enough for the sport, especially with Seattle coming in. If they made any moves in the Eastern Conference, I would be willing to bet that Quebec City would be the better fit than Cleveland. When it comes to hockey, Cleveland is definitely more of an AHL city. It would be a fun team to see back, there are just places much better fit for hockey. With multiple other hockey markets in the area, a Cleveland hockey team wouldn't make sense the way it did in the 70's with an "East-heavy" hockey market. The NHL expects a 17,000 seat stadium at minimum, and they had trouble filling 8,000 in the AHL in the city. An NHL team 45 minutes out of the way wouldn't have enough of an upside, it's the same reason the Whalers moved in '97. Just the way it is, but I would love to see a Barons uniform come back, but it doesn't seem realistic to have an entire other team come into the league.
@@N_manMETA11 Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is multipurpose and expecting an AHL team to draw 17,000 is foolish. They have one of best attendance figures in that league. Who cares if they're out east? If that's where the hockey fans are that's where the teams should be. Whalers moved because their arena is decrepit.
@@MusicandGamesandStuf I didn't say I expected the Cleveland Monsters to draw 17,000, I said the fact that they're in the city and barely attract 8,000 means that a team 30 or 40 minutes OUTSIDE the city would not yeild much better numbers in the NHL. That's what sunk the Barons last time, now having to compete with a fanbase like Detroit's and Chicago's, the Blue Jackets who are up and coming to be a force in the eastern conference. To somebody who doesn't know any better, them being out east doesn't matter on the surface. But you're choosing to ignore a crucial fact, the conferences are uneven. The NHL has FINALLY approved Seattle to even them out in 2021-22, only to add Cleveland and screw it up again? THAT is what I call foolish. To pretty much undo any progress they've made in the last decade. Hypothetically, if Cleveland were awarded an NHL team, to NOT undo the work toward balancing the conferences, they would really have no choice but to do a set of 4 expansion teams. That'd be very tough to do. Not impossible, they had 4 in 4 years in the late 90s and early 2000s, but to expect that is VERY... unrealistic. As a concept, just about every part of it is a total stretch. Not to say Cleveland would be a terrible hockey city, quite the opposite is true. But the way the NHL has set itself up, it would be hard. Even with relocation, I doubt any teams are moving any time soon. Maybe the Coyotes but even then, I highly doubt the league would approve pulling the plug on them right as they're just starting to not suck. Copy and paste for Florida. Carolina is probably there for good too. Aside from them, you only outside chances at relocations are the Ducks (very outside) and like Dallas if they got randomly desparate. Those two would almost require the cities of Dallas or Anaheim burning to the ground too. The reason Cleveland's location is a huge factor is BECAUSE OF THE CONFERENCES. If you can't see that, my friend you should probably do more research. By the way, don't put words in people's mouths. It tends to do good.
This is awesome. Never thought I'd see any Barons footage, especially this clear. Prince is a dreadful announcer for hockey, and I was waiting for his dog Buford, a banjo and Dandy Don Meredith to come out. Love how the Barons somehow blew a 4 on 1 and then gave up a goal right after that. Attendance for this game was a pitiful 5,910 in Cleveland.
I can see why. As a team they are slow, small, unable to set up plays - I don't think they were able to cycle once here - no physical presence, continually outhustled and muscled off pucks against a frankly not much better (on paper) penguin team. They sucked, really, and after a season of this I'd be cussing them out too, if I still cared by that point. Makes me wonder why Meloche tolerated such sub standard play in front of him for so long. Maruk goal a total fluke, they were no real risk to score at any point in this clip. He wasn't out there much but I thought Mike Crombeen showed the best on the team in this clip, which for its rarity is probably not one the guys would have picked had they had some input haha
Lots of people think that the Cleveland Barons are the last major league North America ports franchise to fold but that not true. They merged with the North Stars and thus technically they live on today as the Dallas Stars.
I would say that since the North Stars partially spun off as the San Jose Sharks, the franchise went full circle from the Bay area to Cleveland to Minnesota to the Bay area.
I don't know if I'd call that a merger since the North Stars only got Maruk, MacAdam, Fidler, Greg Smith, Meloche and Gary Edwards. Minnesota only won 18 games the previous season, fewer than the Barons but only found 6 players worth taking. Maruk was immediately shipped off to Washington after 2 games. They also got JP Parise for one season at the end of his career.
Great upload...Dont think Ive seen one of the Barons. Man that is some terrible play calling...Good thing he wasn't calling the game for radio...Clearly Hockey not his sport. These local broadcasts are gold...more and more of them being uploaded. Having grown up in Canada (and what was then the gold standard of broadcasting with HNIC), I was often shocked how bad some of the local commentating was. Chicago's Lloyd Pettit was a legend and is right up there with Gallivan, Kelly and B.Hewitt and Robson.
Too bad Barons didn't stand a chance to develop into a successful franchise. Would be great to have a rivalry with Pittsburg in hockey. Columbus has an NHL team and the Monsters are their farm club. Dan Gilbert would be the right kind of owner to have an NHL team or be part owner.
I wish there was tape of a Rangers-Barons afternoon game from Cleveland I saw that was televised in NY. Both teams were groggy as well as the NY announcers and one of them zeroed in on Bob Girard of the Barons. Every time he came on the ice, the guy would say, "look at Bob Girard... he's just floating up and down his wing... not hitting anyone... just collecting a paycheck" etc... It got to the point that every time Girard came on, the guy got triggered and was reduced to uncontrollable laughter, the kind of thing you would never hear on a broadcast and he really should have been muting his microphone.
Fun fact: the Barons were also a minor league affiliate team not the same as this Barons team they just shared the same nickname the minor league Barons were also from Cleveland.
i just figured out who hank azaria was trying to replicate in Brockmire; but Bob Prince was even crazier! one of the most unintentionally funny jobs of play by play ever, and no, the plexiglass in Cleveland probably wasn't made in Pittsburgh. Management must have been cringing at every broadcast until they finally just got rid of him. on the positive side, i never realized what an unselfish player Pierre Larouche was. he must have set up Brian Spencer ten times in this game alone. What an amazing waste of pure hockey talent...
This is a really good reminder of how awful the play was in that era except for the top handful of teams. I grew up in Buffalo and although they wanted to play with the elites, in 79 they lost the first playoff round 2-out-of-3 to these awful Penguins and that was the end of it for me.
My goodness. This is likely the first extended videotape footage of the Cleveland Barons that's ever surfaced. Date of game is October 23, 1977.
This is incredible! Its very hard to find clear Barons footage, and this is easily the best video publicly available. Many thanks!!
The Barons look a bit like the Atlanta Flames, don't they?
Agree, this is an amazing Barons video.
the footage is as good as the play-by-play is bad. No way the play-by-play guy has ever seen a hockey game before. LOL
This is amazing footage of the Barons! What a treasure!
*_it's footage of the Pens_* 😉
Gold on this video. Besides the jerseys, Bob Prince on play by play plus rare video of the Cleveland Barons and from Richfield coliseum. A ghost team reappears!
Previously the California Golden Seals. Brings back memories of my 70s hockey cards.
I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before. As a 16 year old kid I went to as many games as I could I fell in love with hockey because of the Barons. It hurt worse to lose the barons than when the Browns left because you knew the NHL wasn’t coming back.
Nice to see an old clip of the Cleveland Barons in a home game
This is a treat: Raw, real, imperfect. Low frills across the board. Minor league hockey-like. And Colin Campbell playing D for the Penguins.
Bob Prince doing the game on ch. 53, so much fun too watch and listen to. I believe this was his 2nd game. The Pens televised many more games on ch. 53 than on ch.11. I recall Prince got better as the season wore on. Great to relive these memories and great gratitude to you for keeping those memories alive for those of us who experienced it.
You can definitely tell he's a bit uncertain following the movement of the puck, helluva challenge for a newcomer to hockey play-by-play. Fun to hear Prince, given his legendary status calling Pirates games.
I'll give him a pass consideration he was a baseball but very painful to watch and listen , I had to turn the volume off to enjoy it
I believe Bob Prince also did Pittsburgh Steelers football for a while during this period, but I don't know if he called any of their 1970's Super Bowls.
I think WPXI Channel 11 only televised about fifteen Penguins away games a year in the team's early years, but WPGH doubled that schedule, to at least 30 regular season games a year,probably all on the road.
@@altfactorno, Jack Fleming did.
I love this play-by-play announcer. He sounds like he could be sitting by his living room window describing a really fancy Pontiac driving by.
You’d expect to hear phrases like “How ‘bout that?” “Isn’t that something?” or “Friends, let me tell you about the good folks at All-State.”
the announcer is Bob Prince, who became a Hall of Fame announcer for the PIttsburgh Pirates. He called two world series victories in 1960 and 1971 and watched the great Roberto Clemente play more games than anyone that ever lived on the planet.
From a guy who lives in "hockey country", Bob Prince is admittedly, a legend in baseball circles, but frankly, he was terrible calling hockey games. No objectivity whatsoever
Back when announcers had style and grace and didn't just shout!
Bob is unquestionably a legendary baseball guy dropped into a hockey game. The colour guy knows the personnel but Bob is learning on the go. At one point he says “they’re going up the court”.
no doubt he was smoking a ciggarette while calling the game
So awesome to see these old games. Great quality on this tape (bonus - 'Spinner' Spencer lol). I know hockey is faster now and I love it, but this brings back so many memories of being a kid and watching this every Saturday night with my dad.
PENGUINS Had great looking Jersey and colors before going to black and gold
Michael Leroy we tried to bring it back but Crosby got hurt in 2011. Black and gold it better and has a better history. Blue colors were nice but the pens were in horrible shape here.
The Penguins should have never switched from these beautiful blue uniforms. I get why they did, but I always liked the Pens uniforms of the mid-late 70s. Also, this is awesome to see so much footage from a Barons home game!
There are enough sports teams with red, white, and/or blue. Black & gold more unique.
@@gavinsheridan4680 - Yes but they already had the Bruins in black and gold. No other team was wearing the Pens' navy blue/powder blue combo.
Great footage, it still amazes me how much faster the game now
Thanx for the rare 70's defunct team footage. Great quality
Truly awesome watching the Barons and listening to Prince call a hockey game. He was a great announcer even though bias. It was a sweet game, Bob. Thanks.
Great memories of heading up to Richfield and watching the Barons when we were in college. They had a student discount and most nights sat right on the glass for like $10 a pop. Maruk was a great player and Meloche was a decent goalie., the rest of the barons not so much. One specific memory was watching Mike Fidler always checking his reflection off the glass to make sure the hair was perfect.
Great sightlines for hockey in that building--not a bad seat in the house. (Most of them were always empty, of course, too.) I got to cover games there on occasion for Kent State radio and TV. Meloche was a willing and articulate interview subject. Al MacAdam was another good player for Cleveland that went on to have a nice career as a North Star.
I saw Cleveland play in Toronto that season! Great to see this footage.
This footage is pure gold. Nice upload.
Here's hoping more and more Barons footage appears , slowly but surely it seems to be coming out.
Understandably more highlights will probably come tv news archives but I'm certain more is out there .
"The Gunner," Bob Prince called a number of Pens games. The sport was too fast for him and a cause of frustration as he perpetually had trouble with the players' names or keeping up the description with the pace of play. Good stuff!
He was terrible.
I actually liked the announcer. I thought he was a bit odd and zany at times but I liked it. He sounded an old time boxing or horse racing announcer dong hockey
Yes, Bob was a great baseball announcer, but not so much when it came to hockey.
God bless the Gunner, Bob Prince, but he was awful. I did like his line, “he lit up the lights on Broadway” though, when the Pens scored a goal!
@@Pensfan1618 The Pirates had fired Prince and he had done hockey years and years earlier. The Pens were desperate for anything that might get them more attention then, amidst bankruptcy situations and the dominance of the Steelers in the market. And, Prince WAS a legendary baseball "voice" who was still beloved in Pittsburgh. But--alas--he was TERRIBLE (as in towel) at calling hockey. As a huge Penguin fan, I was horrified.
My favorite penguins jerseys. Obviously the prototype for the switch to black and gold but liked them much better in the blue and white.
I liked the '74-75 uniforms the best, and that was a darn good team that year, too.
Same here. I had a Mario Faubert game-worn jersey that I was able to get from the team for only 50 bucks. Sadly, no longer have it...
I've spent decades wanting to hear Prince on a Penguins game. He's clearly not entirely comfortable but it's not as bad as legend has it.
This was not Prince's first experience broadcasting hockey, however. He had done some radio work for Pittsburgh Hornets games on WWSW radio in the 1950s.
Oh, he's pretty bad. Barely knows the players, or what's going on.
@@dejordyball we got it,now they got it
He is TERRIBLE at hockey here. Really awful.
Bob Prince clearly uncomfortable, but fun to listen to. I think Bob's problem is that he was used to doing a radio type broadcast where the listener doesn't see the video and he's trying to "paint the picture" as the viewer can see the picture. Also getting familiar with the players and their jersey numbers.
That's Bob Prince on the Mic!
🎸Cleveland Rocks ! Mind Blowing Archive ! 🏒
I attended a Pens-Barons game at the Coliseum. It might have been the Barons' last game in Cleveland.
Nah, this says October '77
@@mjp96 just meant I attended what might have been the last Barons' game in CLE vs. PIT. Didn't mean it was this particular game
@@clintscroggs65 - if you were at the April 9, 1978 game it was indeed the last game of the season and the Penguins won 3-2. Maruk had both Barons goals.
I watched that game in a dorm as a junior in college and I swear Bob Prince said something like "Ron Stackhouse has the puck in his backcourt" earlier in the telecast.
Yeah, I heard him refer to "midcourt" as well.
I went to a lot of games and on a cassette recorder did the play-by-play with my pay Ray Oliverio. The tapes I still got stashed away. God Bless
love this and some reason the Penguins look better in Blue or maybe its the Jersey Design .
Everything looks better in blue.
I've always preferred the old-style Penguins uniforms. The new ones look to much like Boston's.
Pens will always be powder blue and navy blue in my book. Never liked the switch to black and gold...
This is good stuff! Finding extended game footage with the Cleveland Barons is about as difficult as finding a hockey rink in the Sahara desert. Excellent quality footage. Cool to see Brian "Spinner" Spencer too. Though you have to wonder if this was the first hockey game that the announcer ever saw. Thank you so much for posting.
LOLOLOL. Sounds like it !
The announcer was Bob Prince, who was the play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates for many years. Hockey was not his forte as you have noticed :)
Is there more!!!😊😊😊😊😊
Long live the Barons!!
Love the Spinner!
Great quality too! Thanks for posting this :)
Entire upper deck of Richfield Coliseum had to be empty as announced attendance was only 5900.
love this era
This sequence pretty much sums up the Barons 6:39 😂
While the Barons didn't last in the NHL, the Barons name returned to Cleveland in their one-tìme AHL team. There's also talk of a possible NHL franchise coming back to Cleveland and the Barons name is the most popular among the public for a name for the team.
Long lost and obscure NHL Trivia: During the Barons two years of existence, Pittsburgh was the only team that Cleveland failed to beat at least once. Hard to believe, considering how inept the Barons were and how strong the Montreal, Boston, and Philadelphia franchises were in that era. But...there were only 18 teams in the league back then, too.
That's what made rooting for the Barons/Seals so frustrating for me. They were capable of pulling off upsets against top teams but would turn around and get clobbered by another bottom dweller two nights later.
Wayne Merrick was the luckiest guy on the ice in this game. Shortly afterwards he'd get traded to the New York Islanders and win four Stanley Cups. And also spotting Jim Neilson, the Big Chief, ex-Ranger star defenseman, playing out the string in Cleveland. And Bob Prince comments on John Baby's name. Imagine having to grow up with "Baby" as your last name.
I always thought that the Barons had some of the sweetest colors and one of the coolest logos they just couldn't get out of their own way I wouldn't mind seeing them come back though.
I believe I was at this game
The Barons and the Montreal Canadiens had a wild bench clearer in that rink, later in the season.
Back in the 70's in Canada, this game would have been nothing more than a score in the newspaper the next day. Teams like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Washington were totally exotic to my friends and I, because we never got to see them play. We only got one game a week on television, Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, and they only ever showed Montreal, Toronto and occasionally Vancouver, and some other original six team, or possibly Buffalo, or Los Angeles. It was so much better than today, when every game is on every single night.
Buffalo Televised Road games in the 70's, and living close to Hamilton Ontario, We got to see all those teams you mentioned. Minnesota and St.Louis also.
@@handlzus7018 ya growing up in Edmonton was a whole other story. Quite frankly, I don't remember even watching Oiler games on TV when they were in the WHA. I may be wrong, but I think they were only on radio in their WHA days. So literally, we got one game a week, the HNIC game on Saturday. Quite frankly, I think that was a whole lot better than being able to watch every single game, like you can today.
You described it perfectly, Dean. Living on Long Island, my friends and I did indeed find many teams "exotic" and preferred to go to Islander games where the opponent was any of the '67 expansion or more recent expansion teams, rather than Montreal, Chicago, Boston, etc. I did join the Barons Booster Club and got to meet the members at a booster convention in NY City in 1978,
On the televised NHL Game of the Week in the US, it was almost always original six teams and once a year you might get St. Louis, Minnesota, Philly and Buffalo before they were good, but never the Kings, Seals, Canucks, Penguins, Caps, Scouts, Barons, Flames, etc. You really had to work to be a hockey fan and get info on these teams and a weekly subscription to The Hockey News was a must!
@@pjet8042 very cool to hear from an American perspective what it was like for you. I remember when I started reading THN in the 80's, one of my favorite sections was the section on NCAA hockey. I loved the 2 games against the same opponent, in a weekend format. That period, before the expansion of cable television, when you only got to see a few, or even one game a week, was so much better than today. The anticipation for Saturday night, or Sunday afternoon for NFL or MLB, was awesome, and made those games so much more meaningful.
@@pocobull The west coast was such a far-flung outpost for hockey in the early 70's that we often didn't get game results in the NY newspapers until 2 days later because of the time difference. I was a California Seals fan and it was crazy not knowing what my team did the day after a game in Oakland. We had an all-news radio station that would do sports every half-hour but with 2 NY teams in football, basketball and hockey they often wouldn't read off the out-of-town scores.
I guess the NBC Game of the Week had one game a year with the early Sabres because Buffalo was on the east coast, because we never got to see the Canucks. The Seals were finally featured in their last season before moving to Cleveland, in a game at Chicago. Couldn't believe my eyes. The Rangers would televise a handful of road games every season on a local station and amazingly they occasionally had one from the west coast so I did stay up late to see games in LA, Vancouver and Oakland. The Islanders did have one televised game in their first season, and it was an incredible 9-7 win at Boston.
Speaking of 2 games against the same opponent, that was one of the innovative features of the WHA. Because the league was a lot more spread out than the NHL with teams in Alberta, Winnipeg and Houston and later Calgary, Phoenix and Birmingham, east coast teams would sometimes play 2 games in those cities before moving on, to save travel costs. The second games must have been wild because players didn't have to wait until later in the season to avenge a grudge...
Very clear picture. Way to go.
I would love to see the 1977 Flyers-Barons game in which Tom Bladdon scored 8 points for Philly (4 G, 4 A). Flyers won 11 to 1 and Randy Holt of the Barons beat up Flyers' Mel Bridgman.
Was that the game where Holt rung up like 50 years in penalty minutes in 1 game?
@@Rockhound6165 no, that was when Holt played for the Kings. 1979 I believe.
@@steveshutt6409 Yes--Holt in L.A. at that time. Might even have been a first-round playoff game. That's a loooong time ago, now.
I was at that game in Philly
@@Rockhound6165 no but he elbowed and fought Mel Bridgman.
This is footage of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals
This is awesome watching all those ex-Kings. Corrigan, Spencer, Apps, Monahan, Hampton.
I miss the Barons although they couldn't draw flies.
Guys are taking 2 to 3 minute shifts ...that's awesome
John Baby sighting!
The Gunner and his, we got it, now they got it, style of play by play
It's a hockey night in Cleveland! 🏒🥅
Dunc Wilson's mask... if anyone tried such a thing today...
What a treasure to watch a great portion of a Barons home game. Lets hope more clips materialize. Prince is just dreadful as an announcer!
yeah dreadful is right. Funny thing he(Prince) was a real great baseball announcer for the Pirates.
Lew Morrison only played 4 more NHL games after this one. Had his last point in this game. Super random fact.
Former Flyer. #8
Very rare to see Larouche and Apps in these jerseys, they were traded very early in this season
And startling to see Larouche centering ... Brian Spencer and Hartland Monahan. Syl looked barely engaged; no longer had the letter on his sweater.
To be fair the pens were so cheap that they rarely actually put the “A” on the jerseys then
@@alexyerkey3141 I think it was between 1975 and 1985 the NHL did not have the A for alternate captains.
...Another well-attended Cleveland Barons' home game.
5910 one of their largest crowds of the season
The guy at 15:25 did some voice overs for NFL games of the week in the 70's, I'd recognize it anywhere!!
Ill always be a Cleveland Baron
Syl Apps Jr....nice
Brian Spencer with his John Wensink-hair..
All right gang lets get that ball past midcourt. Bob Prince is so bad but man he is funny. He knows zip about hockey and is probably boozing too
bring the barons back NHL!
I don't know that the Barons coming back is a good idea. Yes, it would be really cool. The problem is, the city doesn't have, and will not approve an NHL suitable rink in the city. That will leave a similar problem to the original Barons, who had a suitable stadium, but it is located 45 minutes outside of Cleveland. On top of that, the Blue Jackets already have much of Ohio's hockey following, plus the Red Wings and Penguins both have a decent following there. It just wouldn't do enough for the sport, especially with Seattle coming in. If they made any moves in the Eastern Conference, I would be willing to bet that Quebec City would be the better fit than Cleveland. When it comes to hockey, Cleveland is definitely more of an AHL city. It would be a fun team to see back, there are just places much better fit for hockey. With multiple other hockey markets in the area, a Cleveland hockey team wouldn't make sense the way it did in the 70's with an "East-heavy" hockey market. The NHL expects a 17,000 seat stadium at minimum, and they had trouble filling 8,000 in the AHL in the city. An NHL team 45 minutes out of the way wouldn't have enough of an upside, it's the same reason the Whalers moved in '97. Just the way it is, but I would love to see a Barons uniform come back, but it doesn't seem realistic to have an entire other team come into the league.
@@N_manMETA11 Maks sense. Thanks.
NmanMETA 11 why isn’t Cleveland more of an NHL city? It’s a big city and a cold weather gritty city with blue collar roots which is very hockey like?
@@N_manMETA11 Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is multipurpose and expecting an AHL team to draw 17,000 is foolish. They have one of best attendance figures in that league.
Who cares if they're out east? If that's where the hockey fans are that's where the teams should be.
Whalers moved because their arena is decrepit.
@@MusicandGamesandStuf I didn't say I expected the Cleveland Monsters to draw 17,000, I said the fact that they're in the city and barely attract 8,000 means that a team 30 or 40 minutes OUTSIDE the city would not yeild much better numbers in the NHL. That's what sunk the Barons last time, now having to compete with a fanbase like Detroit's and Chicago's, the Blue Jackets who are up and coming to be a force in the eastern conference. To somebody who doesn't know any better, them being out east doesn't matter on the surface. But you're choosing to ignore a crucial fact, the conferences are uneven. The NHL has FINALLY approved Seattle to even them out in 2021-22, only to add Cleveland and screw it up again? THAT is what I call foolish. To pretty much undo any progress they've made in the last decade. Hypothetically, if Cleveland were awarded an NHL team, to NOT undo the work toward balancing the conferences, they would really have no choice but to do a set of 4 expansion teams. That'd be very tough to do. Not impossible, they had 4 in 4 years in the late 90s and early 2000s, but to expect that is VERY... unrealistic. As a concept, just about every part of it is a total stretch. Not to say Cleveland would be a terrible hockey city, quite the opposite is true. But the way the NHL has set itself up, it would be hard. Even with relocation, I doubt any teams are moving any time soon. Maybe the Coyotes but even then, I highly doubt the league would approve pulling the plug on them right as they're just starting to not suck. Copy and paste for Florida. Carolina is probably there for good too. Aside from them, you only outside chances at relocations are the Ducks (very outside) and like Dallas if they got randomly desparate. Those two would almost require the cities of Dallas or Anaheim burning to the ground too. The reason Cleveland's location is a huge factor is BECAUSE OF THE CONFERENCES. If you can't see that, my friend you should probably do more research. By the way, don't put words in people's mouths. It tends to do good.
That attendance tho
Before tax dodging companies bought everything up
The announcer is hilarious “we”, we, we”
Saw the Barons play at Maple Leafs Gardens in 1978! I think Gary Smith was in goal for Cleveland. I always liked their uniforms!
Gary " Suitcase" Smith, he played for many teams
Their goalies would have been Meloche, Gary Simmons or Gary Edwards. Smitty was on a lot of teams but not Cleveland.
Sparsely attended game of course!
A mere 5910 people showed up for this one. 8^(
This is awesome. Never thought I'd see any Barons footage, especially this clear. Prince is a dreadful announcer for hockey, and I was waiting for his dog Buford, a banjo and Dandy Don Meredith to come out. Love how the Barons somehow blew a 4 on 1 and then gave up a goal right after that. Attendance for this game was a pitiful 5,910 in Cleveland.
Pete Braidis you hear the angry Cleveland fans cussing and yelling at the lowly Barons as the microphones picked up on it.
I can see why. As a team they are slow, small, unable to set up plays - I don't think they were able to cycle once here - no physical presence, continually outhustled and muscled off pucks against a frankly not much better (on paper) penguin team. They sucked, really, and after a season of this I'd be cussing them out too, if I still cared by that point. Makes me wonder why Meloche tolerated such sub standard play in front of him for so long. Maruk goal a total fluke, they were no real risk to score at any point in this clip. He wasn't out there much but I thought Mike Crombeen showed the best on the team in this clip, which for its rarity is probably not one the guys would have picked had they had some input haha
Lots of people think that the Cleveland Barons are the last major league North America ports franchise to fold but that not true. They merged with the North Stars and thus technically they live on today as the Dallas Stars.
I would say that since the North Stars partially spun off as the San Jose Sharks, the franchise went full circle from the Bay area to Cleveland to Minnesota to the Bay area.
I don't know if I'd call that a merger since the North Stars only got Maruk, MacAdam, Fidler, Greg Smith, Meloche and Gary Edwards. Minnesota only won 18 games the previous season, fewer than the Barons but only found 6 players worth taking. Maruk was immediately shipped off to Washington after 2 games. They also got JP Parise for one season at the end of his career.
Pens should Ave kept powder blue.
*_Brian "Spinner" Spencer!!!_*
Even with the two line pass rule, the modern NHL is so much faster.
Great upload...Dont think Ive seen one of the Barons. Man that is some terrible play calling...Good thing he wasn't calling the game for radio...Clearly Hockey not his sport. These local broadcasts are gold...more and more of them being uploaded. Having grown up in Canada (and what was then the gold standard of broadcasting with HNIC), I was often shocked how bad some of the local commentating was. Chicago's Lloyd Pettit was a legend and is right up there with Gallivan, Kelly and B.Hewitt and Robson.
Jim Robson was great. Too bad The Canucks were so awful for so long.
Too bad Barons didn't stand a chance to develop into a successful franchise. Would be great to have a rivalry with Pittsburg in hockey. Columbus has an NHL team and the Monsters are their farm club. Dan Gilbert would be the right kind of owner to have an NHL team or be part owner.
Chicken on the hill with Syl !
They would play at Quickenloans arena if they played now days with their team logo enlarged at center ice I love using my imagination with this stuff.
@8:18 Mario Lemieux stick handling by Greg Smith.
Geesh, even the play by play guy didn't want to be there
I wish there was tape of a Rangers-Barons afternoon game from Cleveland I saw that was televised in NY. Both teams were groggy as well as the NY announcers and one of them zeroed in on Bob Girard of the Barons. Every time he came on the ice, the guy would say, "look at Bob Girard... he's just floating up and down his wing... not hitting anyone... just collecting a paycheck" etc... It got to the point that every time Girard came on, the guy got triggered and was reduced to uncontrollable laughter, the kind of thing you would never hear on a broadcast and he really should have been muting his microphone.
Who would have thought the penguins would go on to win 5 Stanley cups,
Barons were 4-1 coming in.Lost a heartbreaker here & went down hill after
end to end excitement, crowd going wild, wonder why the Barons failed?
Fun fact: the Barons were also a minor league affiliate team not the same as this Barons team they just shared the same nickname the minor league Barons were also from Cleveland.
Nice to see Brian Spencer get decent ice time & a goal. Barons fans social distancing back then eh?!
4 on 1 breakaway and Cleveland still misses. Wow
Best Penguins uniform,
Not that ugly bee one,
It takes always one single idiot to decide to make changes then a few follow of course.
i just figured out who hank azaria was trying to replicate in Brockmire; but Bob Prince was even crazier! one of the most unintentionally funny jobs of play by play ever, and no, the plexiglass in Cleveland probably wasn't made in Pittsburgh. Management must have been cringing at every broadcast until they finally just got rid of him. on the positive side, i never realized what an unselfish player Pierre Larouche was. he must have set up Brian Spencer ten times in this game alone. What an amazing waste of pure hockey talent...
30 days later I was born (22 November 1977)
8O
10/23/77 is the date
Michael Stanley put more fannies in the seats at the Richfield Coliseum than the Barons.
Is that Bob Prince calling the game?
😮
Is Tom Cassidy in the Pittsburgh lineup ?
Yes, he was in this match.
The only thing worse than the announcer is the actual play of both of these teams. I really don't understand how and why the Penguins ever survived.
This is a really good reminder of how awful the play was in that era except for the top handful of teams. I grew up in Buffalo and although they wanted to play with the elites, in 79 they lost the first playoff round 2-out-of-3 to these awful Penguins and that was the end of it for me.
Nice footage although you can see why they failed as a team in that city pretty poor attendance for NHL game.
I read that the arena was located in the middle of nowhere like Ottawa
@ Tim McCartney can i get some of what you uploaded on dvd from you
The Cleveland Barons beat every NHL team they played from 1976 to 1978. Except the Pittsburgh Penguins, that is. ☹
Dear Jebus! The level of play in this game is equal to my Sunday evening rec league.
Bob Prince wasn't as bad in hockey as he was made out to be. Not great, but not terrible.
WHO IS WORKING WITH PRINCE
Terry Schiffauer
@@gatherer47 he was the penguins PR man at the time. did a lot of whining when penguins were losing, which was frequently when they were on the road.