Red Barber
Personal Information
Description
Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sports commentator. Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–1938), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional American football in his primary market of New York City.
Books
1947, when all hell broke loose in baseball
When Jackie Robinson was penciled into the lineup for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, America’s national pastime and America’s future changed forever. How much is reflected in a remark Martin Luther King Jr. made to Don Newcombe: “You’ll never know what you and Jackie and Roy did to make it possible to do my job.” Red Barber was perfectly situated to observe this drama. Broadcaster for the Dodgers, friend of Branch Rickey—who confided in him before and during the year of decision—and keen student of the game and the behavior of its players, Red held the microphone as the story unfolded with a cast of characters that included baseball immortals Duke Snyder, Leo Durocher, Pee Wee Reese, Peter Reiser, Larry McPhail, and Joe DiMaggio. Towering above them all are Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey—who together made baseball and American history and whose courage and toughness Red Barber captures so beautifully in this book.
Show Me the Way to Go Home
"It is really a recital and a very human, moving recital-about one man's journey into faith" You need to read this book!!!
The Broadcasters
The initial impact of radio may be difficult for today's television public grasp, but Red’s evocation of those early days is choice and pungent.
Walk in the Spirit
Hallowed moments and memories from the sports world presented by the popular commentator who has done some preaching on the side. There's Ben Hogan working his way up to a tournament some eleven months after doctors predicted he'd never walk again; Branch Rickey preparing thirty years to sign Jackie Robinson and quoting The Life of Christ in their determining interview; Roger Bannister in grueling preparation for his four-minute mile; Campanella and his quiet acceptance of life in a wheelchair. Mr. Barber illustrates the Christian qualities that make men great and if you can forgive his rapt generalizations--""He walked in the spirit all his life,"" there's inspiration here--not hard hitting; slow curves.
Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat
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.
The Rhubarb Patch
Portraits - in text and photographs - of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the late 1940s and early 1950s.