Michigan
As voice of the Pistons, George Blaha has become an iconic figure in Michigan sports
In the mid- to late 1950s, legendary sportscasters Harry Caray, Ernie Harwell and Bob Prince took to their broadcasting booths to narrate baseball games for their respective teams.
Each became a staple for kids nationwide who grew up fans of the sport. But for George Blaha — a 10-year-old boy listening to the radio in Iowa — the voices of Caray, Harwell and Prince inspired a five-decade broadcasting career.
“Listening to baseball games at night, I could just imagine the guys in the booth having a good time while broadcasting the game,” Blaha told The Detroit News. “The excitement of being there, bringing the excitement to the fans. I used to think, ‘If I could do this for the rest of my life, I’m in.’ I’ve always wanted to do this.”
With the belief of his mother (Margaret Blaha) and father (Dr. Vernon Blaha), Blaha grew from a young boy listening to baseball games in his bedroom to establishing himself as a legendary broadcaster in his own right. The 2024-25 season marked Blaha’s 49th year as the Detroit Pistons’ play-by-play announcer. Dubbed “The Voice of the Pistons,” he has called more than 3,700 regular-season games and more than 260 playoff games.
In September, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will induct Blaha as the 2025 Curt Gowdy Media Award honoree.
2025 Detroit News Michiganian of the Year George Blaha
2025 Detroit News Michiganian of the Year George Blaha at Pudges Place Deli and Cafe in Troy, Michigan on April, 30, 2025.
Blaha’s contributions to Michigan sports have gone beyond the microphone. In the late 1980s, he was part of a committee that saved Wayne State University’s football program. Blaha and his group collaborated with then-Detroit Mayor Coleman Young through several board meetings and fundraisers to address the financial issues.
About 30 years later, Blaha’s contributions have allowed Wayne State University to provide scholarships for hundreds of students throughout Detroit.
“It’s probably one of my proudest achievements,” Blaha said. “I did not do it by myself. But, our group decided the only guy who could help us was Coleman Young, and I knew who I was, so I got in touch with him, and he got back to me, and we got it done.”
Blaha’s broadcasting career began in Adrian, but his significant break came after moving to Lansing in 1971. He was a news and sports broadcaster, covering high school basketball and Michigan State football for WJIM-AM (1240). However, it was in Lansing that Blaha learned about a broadcasting job for the Pistons at WJR-AM (760) through friend Tom Campbell.
Blaha’s first game was in October 1976, when Bob Lanier’s Pistons lost 98-97 to Wes Unseld’s Washington Bullets. Blaha sat at the scorers’ table at Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit in awe of the game’s speed and the players’ stature.
Feeling nervous about his performance after the game, Blaha drove an hour in the wrong direction from his home in Lansing.
“I said to myself at the time, ‘I better buckle up my seat belt. This is a grown man’s league; I better be up to it,’” Blaha recalled.
Since his debut, Blaha has become a prominent figure in Michigan’s sports history. He is a two-time Michigan Sports Broadcaster of the Year from the National Sportscasters and Sports Writers Association (2003 and 2007). In 2008, Blaha — who still calls Michigan State football games — was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Witnessing the Pistons’ resurgence this season in year 49 has become one of Blaha’s best memories during his illustrious career and one of the reasons he intends to return for a 50th year behind the mic.
“Fifty is in the bag; you can count on that,” Blaha said. “Count that baby and a foul. But no foul in this case.”
Coty.Davis@detroitnews.com
@cotydavis_24
George Blaha
Age: 80
Occupation: Play-by-play broadcaster
Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Notre Dame; MBA, University of Michigan
Family: Wife Mary Blaha
Why honored: For being an iconic figure in Michigan sports broadcasting
Michigan
Police say Oakland County teen missing, endangered
Authorities are asking for the public’s assistance to find a missing Oakland County teen who is considered endangered.
Adrianna Smith, 15, was last seen in the 3500 block of South Fenton Road, just south of the city of Holly in northwest Oakland County, according to Michigan State Police.
She is believed to have left her home in a 2002 Jeep Liberty with an adult male, possibly a man named Derek Girtman, MSP said.
Smith is described as having blonde hair and green eyes. She is about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 160 pounds. She has one tattoo above her right knee and another on her left ankle.
Anyone with information about Adrianna’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the MSP Metro North Post at either (800) 495-4677 or (989) 370-8926.
Michigan
US supreme court sides with Michigan in its fight to shut down ageing pipeline
The supreme court on Wednesday sided with Michigan in ruling that the state’s lawsuit seeking to shut down a section of an ageing pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel will stay in state court.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous court that the Enbridge energy company waited too long to try to move the case to federal court.
The case is part of a messy legal dispute about a pipeline that has moved crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, sued in state court in June 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Enbridge to operate a 4.5-mile (6.4km) section of pipeline under the straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel, a Democrat, won a restraining order shutting down the pipeline from Ingham county judge James Jamo in June 2020, although Enbridge was allowed to continue operations after meeting safety requirements.
Enbridge moved the lawsuit into federal court in 2021, arguing it affects US and Canadian trade. But a three-judge panel from the sixth US circuit court of appeals sent the case back to Jamo in June 2024, finding that the company missed a 30-day deadline to change jurisdictions.
The pipeline at issue is called Line 5. Concerns over the section beneath the straits rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge engineers revealed they had known about gaps in the section’s protective coating since 2014. A boat anchor damaged the section in 2018, intensifying fears of a spill.
The Michigan department of natural resources under Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s governor, revoked the straits easement for Line 5 in 2020. Enbridge filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging the revocation.
Enbridge won a ruling from a federal judge blocking the move, but Whitmer, a Democrat, has appealed to the sixth US circuit court of appeals. In March, the supreme court rejected Whitmer’s appeal claiming that she couldn’t be sued in federal court.
It was unclear how the federal ruling blocking Whitmer’s revocation attempt would affect Nessel’s case in state court. The company said in a statement that the judge in the Whitmer case had already decided federal regulators, not the state, are responsible for Line 5 safety and they had found no issues that would warrant shutting it down.
Enbridge also is seeking permits to encase the section of pipeline beneath the straits in a protective tunnel. The Michigan public service commission granted the relevant permits in 2023, but a coalition of environmental groups and Michigan tribes has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state permits for the tunnel. The state supreme court is weighing that case.
Enbridge also needs approval from the US army corps of engineers and the Michigan department of environment, Great Lakes and energy.
The pipeline is at the center of a separate legal dispute in Wisconsin as well. A federal judge in Madison last summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation. The company has appealed against the shutdown order to the seventh US circuit court of appeals, but it started work in February to reroute the line around the reservation.
The Bad River Band and environmental groups have filed a state lawsuit seeking to halt the work, arguing regulators have underestimated the damage the reroute construction will cause. That case also is pending.
Michigan
Hockey roundup: Three Michigan State recruits at U18 worlds; Bruins top Sabres
Porter Martone becomes first teenager to score game-winning goals in his first two NHL playoff games.
Porter Martone becomes first teenager to score game-winning goals in his first two NHL playoff games.
Three Michigan State recruits will represent Team USA at the world U18 hockey championships in Bratislava and Trencin, Slovakia.
The U.S. opens against Czechia on Wednesday (10 a.m., The Hockey Network).
The future Spartans are: defenseman Nick Bogas (Royal Oak), defenseman Tyler Martyniuk (Washington Township) and forward Brooks Rogowski (Brighton).
Other local commits include: defenseman Abe Barnett (University of Michigan) and goalie Luke Carrithers (Western Michigan).
Team USA’s head coach is Nick Fohr (Dexter) with Kevin Porter (Northville) and Dan Darrow (Livonia) among the assistant coaches.
The tournament features 10 countries with the final scheduled for May 2.
Bruins tie series with Sabres
The visiting Boston Bruins scored three second-period goals and held off a late Buffalo Sabres rally to post a 4-2 win on Tuesday and even their Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series at one victory apiece.
Viktor Arvidsson scored in the last two periods, giving the Bruins 1-0 and 4-0 leads. Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha also lit the lamp for Boston, which heads home for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday.
Jonathan Aspirot, Casey Mittelstadt and David Pastrnak each dished out two assists for the Bruins, and Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves.
Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs scored as Buffalo climbed within 4-2 in the closing minutes.
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on 19 shots before Alex Lyon entered in relief following Arvidsson’s second marker, which came just 16 seconds into the third period.
Buffalo had a 36-26 shot advantage, including 20-8 in the third period, but its power play went 0-for-5. Boston finished 1-for-6 on the man advantage.
The physical contest featured 47 penalty minutes for each team.
Following a scoreless opening period, the Bruins took over in the second, scoring on three of their 11 shots against Luukkonen.
Arvidsson broke the deadlock 4:54 into the middle frame, taking Aspirot’s lob pass in ahead of the defense and beating Luukkonen five-hole with a backhander from the left circle.
A gaffe by Luukkonen helped Boston double its lead with 3:31 left in the period, as Geekie’s high backhanded dump from the far side of center ice eluded him over the glove.
The Bruins’ power play got in on the action 1:41 later. After Geekie’s one- handed keep-in at the blue line extended the play, Zacha tipped in Pastrnak’s shot from the top of the right circle while stationed in the bumper position.
Arvidsson made it 4-0 early in the third, prompting Sabres coach Lindy Ruff to change goaltenders. Aspirot banked a long feed off the boards to set up the play, leading Arvidsson down the left wing to score on a 2-on-1 rush with Zacha.
The Sabres struck twice in a 1:14 span to make things interesting. Byram accepted Beck Malenstyn’s back pass for a wrister from the top of the right circle to break Swayman’s shutout bid with 6:06 left.
Krebs soon made it 4-2, batting down and scoring the rebound of a Rasmus Dahlin point shot that caromed off the post and back into the crease.
Detroit Red Wings received six A’s in The Detroit News’ final grades for the 2025-2026 season.
Grades and key takeaways for Finnie, Gibson, Seider, Larkin, Raymond and DeBrincat after the Wings’ late collapse.
-
Business4 minutes agoMrBeast company sued over claims of sexual harassment, firing a new mom
-
Entertainment10 minutes agoDataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, sets opening date and first exhibition
-
Lifestyle16 minutes agoThe New Rules for Negotiating With Multibrand Retailers
-
Politics22 minutes agoBass, Barger meet with Trump to push for L.A. fire recovery funds
-
Science28 minutes agoContributor: Regulate the ‘Enhanced Games’ as a medical experiment and a marketing stunt
-
Sports34 minutes agoAre you still hoping to buy Olympic tickets? LA28 shares terms for second ticket drop
-
World46 minutes agoIs Europe too late to the metal recycling game?
-
News1 hour agoWho is John Phelan, the US Navy Secretary fired by Pete Hegseth?