Sox broadcasting legend Gowdy dies

[MaineDem]

Curt Gowdy, whose distinctive baritone was the TV voice of the Red Sox for 15 years, died at his Florida home after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86.

Gowdy announced Red Sox games from 1951-1966 before leaving to become a national sports broadcaster for NBC.

"... to fans in New England in the 1950s and ‘60s, his was the voice that told the stories of the Red Sox to a generation of fans," said Dr. Charles Steinberg, the Red Sox' executive vice president of public affairs. "He was the voice under the pillow."

Fellow Red Sox legend John Pesky, speaking from Red Sox training camp in Fort Myers, Fla., remembered Gowdy as "a peach of a guy."

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/02/20/sox_legend_gowdy_dies/?rss_id=Red+Sox+stories+from+Boston.com


I will always remember being a little kid on summer afternoons and evenings with an open window, a transistor radio, and Curt Gowdy calling the Sox games. RIP.

[DaveinMD]

1. great announcer

no matter what sport he did. May he rest in peace.

[dad]

2. He won't be donating to the RNC any more

Check out his campaign contributions on newsmeat.com

[dr.zoidberg]

3. And this is important because?

[PDittie]

4. He'll always be baseball on Saturday afternoons to me

This was the only baseball you could watch on TV at the time.

About the same time I was becoming a Astros fan and listening to Gene Elston (congratulations to him on receiving the Ford Frick award this week) and Loel Passe ("breezed 'im one mo' time") on the radio, I was watching Gowdy and Tony Kubek on the tube.

He also did all those World Series in the sixties too, when they played all the games during the day. My dad would always try to time a week's worth of his vacation when he thought the WS was going to be played so he could watch. I distinctly remember watching Gowdy call the '71 Series between the Orioles and Pirates: "Bobby" Clemente became Roberto with all his hits, the Bucs pitchers Nellie Briles and Steve Blass outdueling the Oriole greats McNally, Palmer, Cuellar.

And some of the first Super Bowl telecasts. The ones I clearly recall were III -- the seminal moment for Joe Willie Namath and the AFL -- and V, which was the first one the Dallas Cowboys played in. The Cowboys lost, on a last-second field goal to the Colts, which nearly made me kick in the screen. I was a much bigger fan of the 'Pokes then than now.

Gowdy was just as famous for being a Red Sox broadcaster and for The American Sportsman, but to me he'll always be baseball on Saturday afternoons.