I didn't know he was a former Red Sox announcer. He and Chris Schenkle and Jim McKay are broadcasting Icons of my youth. I feel older today. Terry Feb 20, 2006 11:36 am US/Eastern Former Red Sox Broadcaster Curt Gowdy Dies At 86 Save It Email It Print It (CBS4) BOSTON Former Red Sox and NBC television broadcaster Curt Gowdy died at his home in Florida Monday, after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86 years old. Gowdy's family was with him at the time of his death. He was the radio voice of the Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. That time included his famous call of Ted Williams' final home run in his final at-bat at the end of the 1960 season. Gowdy left the Red Sox to join NBC Sports, where he was the network's lead television broadcaster for it's baseball game of the week. From 1966 to 1975, he called the play-by-play for every World Series and All-Star game for NBC. In his long career, he also announced Super Bowls, NCAA basketball championships and the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He also spent two decades as the host of "The American Sportsman". He was honored in his native Wyoming in 1971 when Curt Gowdy State Park was established. Gowdy was named National Sportscaster of the Year three times. He joined the writers and broadcasters wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984. (© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Curt Gowdy...The Voice of The Red Sox..Indeed. I was at that last game in 1960 when Teddyballgame hit the home run and then retired. Gowdy also played basketball at the University of Wyoming and he had a deadly 2 handed "set shot". He will be missed. jif
Yes I do..he worked as Mel Allens color man...HOW ABOUT THAT!. Remember the White Owl Whallop and the Ballentine Blast? jif
:cry: What I loved about Gowdy, was that he just called the game and obviously enjoyed being there in person. Some of these cheerleaders could take a lesson. Gowdy was never the show. He put the listener in the show without interfering. He was one of the best and there aren't many left... ..............JO'Co
I always enjoyed his no nonsense delivery and he was a natural in his profession. Not too many of those around anymore. Don
Joel, I vaguely remember. It was during my early years as a fan. It ended sometime in the mid 60's. Getty Oil was the sponsor of the Yankees in the 70's and I remember when Nettles hit a homer it was another "Getty Goner" Before the Budweiser era, the Yanks were sponsored by Ballentine and the Mets by Rheingold. Wasn't the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants also sponsored by Breweries? Did one of them have Schaeffer? Ballentine Brewery was in Newark. Also Pabst Blue Ribbon was in East Orange or Orange NJ? Schaeffer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one. My beer is Rheingold the dry beer. Ask for Rheingold whenever you buy beer Curt Gowdy, he was great. They don't produce announcers like that anymore. The old timers, they added drama to the game. They made it exciting. Their voices would rise at the right moment. It's so antiseptic today,so many experts, color announcers. I absolutely hate Davie. He is so boring with his monotone voice. He has no voice for announcing. I miss Howard Coselll. He made Monday Night football exciting. He had a way of making the game seem so important.
Pabst was a Eastern beer? I would have thought it was a Milwaukee beer or Chicago Beer or someplace in the Midwest.
:wink: Pabst Blue Ribbon .........JO'Co My dad drank Pabst, because it was cheap... but then he only used it like water to wash down his Early Times. I once asked him what the difference was, between Pabst and water. He said, "nuthin"...
I drove a beer truck for Ballentine working my way through college in '67-'68. "Hey Joe College, I hear you know North Jersey like the back of your hand," said the dispatcher. "Yes sir," I replied, " I grew up there!" "Good take truck 22, it's all loaded, here are your stops" "Whoa! These stops are all in Haarlem and the North Bronx not North Jersey," I quickly pointed out. "Yeah college boy but you have to drive to through North Jersey to get to Haarlem! Welcome to the working world!," he noted. There was a fringe benefit I've not had at any other job, a tap in the locker room. When you finished you shift you take home all the beer you wanted - as long as you consumed it in the locker room first. I haven't driven on the Garden State Parkway in a lot of years but there used to be Pabst Bottle a couple of stories tall on the northbound side of the GSP somewhere around Bloomfield or the Oranges. I'd hazard a guess that Rheingold was with the Brooklyn Carpetbaggers before they dumped their fans for the ravine. As the sole Yankee fan in a Dodger household I was forced to endure a lot of Dodger TV games. Speaking of great announcers ... I don't think anybody watched the baseball Giants. Yankees were WPIX 11, Dodgers WOR 9, but I can't recall a Giants TV station. Channel 5 ???
Jack Like you I remember the Yankee and Dodger channels. Is it possible that the Giants were broadcast on channel 13 before they became the NET station? When I first started drinking beer (in high school like almost all NY kids since the drinking age was 18) I drank Reingold because it was the sponser of the Mets. Pretty bitter beer if I remember. Certainly not like the three rings of Ballentine (purity, body, flavor?)