Few today can match Gowdy

From 1951 through 1965 he was the voice of the Red Sox. For those who grew up with Curt Gowdy making the calls, summers were wonderfully baritone and filled with his natural ease.

Gowdy passed away this week at age 86 after a battle with leukemia. There are few left in his genre of broadcasters. They were the ones who did both radio and TV for their clubs and they were the teams’ public sounds and faces.

Vin Scully just upped for two more years with the Dodgers. He is the dean of that era now.

Gowdy was a pro’s pro. His good nature and magnificent call will be missed.

In this new era of sports this week we have been presented with new issues. At the Olympics, the U.S. hockey team was eliminated without reaching the medal round.

In preparation for the World Baseball Classic, where major league players will compete on national teams during March, players continue to drop out and Major League Baseball owners continue to grumble about their players risking injury.

There is a common thread between these matters: In both cases there are professional athletes whose primary obligation is to the team they play for and that pays them.

The conflict comes when they are asked to compete for “the flag” of their home country.

In the U.S. is that cold war motivation to stage such international competition gone for both the fans and the athletes?

Truth be known, many U.S. National Hockey League players on the Olympic hockey team would just as soon not have been there. The risk of injury and the shut down of the season is no longer worth the gold.

NHL owners feel even more strongly about that. They have millions invested in players to win the Stanley Cup, or at least go deep into the playoffs so they can make a profit.

When a Dominick Hasek goes down at the Olympics, as the Ottawa goaltender did, the whole season is in jeopardy for the team. For the owners, it is not worth the price.

In the World Baseball Classic, the owners went along with Commissioner Bud Selig’s belief this was a way to increase interest in MLB worldwide. The owners were not happy about it.

Now players are dropping out for numerous reasons, all of which boil down to not wanting to risk injury in this tournament that could affect their season, their earning power and the fate of their teams.

As sports at every level have become more a business operation for both owners, institutions and athletes, the desire to break out of the business setting to compete in what are essentially exhibition events, including the Olympics, has lessened.

Just how much so depends on the country and the sport.

It may even be that the interest of fans in this country in such events is less, as evinced by the TV ratings for the current Olympic games.

Certainly the saturation of sporting events on television in this country has altered the fans’ interest level. It just may be that we are back where we started, watching the old home team is what matters most.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.