Overview

For more than fifty years Red Barber was the voice of baseball. The game was broadcast sporadically until the late 1930s, when Barber burst into prominence by bringing it home to radio listeners, play by play. More than half a century later, he could still be heard, broadcasting over National Public Radio from his retirement home in Tallahassee. Announcing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and later for the New York Yankees, he became a legend long before his death in 1992. Red’s story reveals the growth and changes in baseball over the years, the demands of sportscasting, and the difference between radio and television reporting. Here is Red giving major play-by-plays of his own life and career with characteristic wit and integrity.

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9780803261365

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Reviews

Catbird Seat was one of Red (Walter - did you know it?) Barber's southern cornpone phrases which he brought with him from down thayuh when he started to broadcast the ball back in 1934 with the Cincinnati Reds. This then is a re-play by play of the many words he spoke over the air, along with insets on his life, and somehow one of his youthful ambitions of being in a minstrel show was realized as he became the sportscaster of the early 40's with the Dodgers who were then proving to be something better than Bums. Barber devotes most of the coverage here to his pre-Yankee sportscasting, probably because of the lingering rancor of his sudden and much protested dismissal. However the most honestly faced issue here is his personal crise over the Dodgers' decision to hire Jackie Robinson, and his difficulties in accepting integration. . . . Maybe for his following - pickup reading for the Ballantine time of baseball, or during those long managerial walks to the mound. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Robert W. Creamer, formerly a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated, is the author of Stengel: His Life and Times (also available as a Bison Book) and Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition on National Public Radio, is the author of Fridays with Red.

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