Baseball broadcaster, born in Columbus, Mississippi, USA. He was the broadcaster for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees (193966), and was known for his colourful phrases such as sitting in the catbird seat. He enjoyed a revival in the final decade of his life as a weekly sports commentator on the National Public Broadcasting System, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978.
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 (1934-38), 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 football in his primary market of New York City.
Early years
Barber grew up in Mississippi, and was a distant relative of poet Sidney Lanier. Barber promptly dropped out of school to focus on his radio work.
On Opening Day in 1934, Barber broadcast his first play-by-play for a major league game, as the Reds lost to the Chicago Cubs 6-0. It was also the first major league game Barber had ever seen in person.
Brooklyn Dodgers
Barber had been hired by Larry MacPhail, then president of the Reds. When MacPhail moved on to become President of the Dodgers in 1938, he took Barber with him.
At Brooklyn, Barber became an institution, widely admired for his folksy style of play-by-play and his signature catchphrases, which included:
"They're tearin' up the pea patch" -- used for a team on a winning streak. According to a character in Thurber's story, the expression came from Red Barber. But according to Barber's daughter, her father did not begin using the expression until after he had read the story.To further his "Southern gentleman" image, Barber would often identify players as "Mister," "Big Fella" or "Old" (regardless of the player's age):
"Now, Mister Reiser steps to the plate, batting at .344." Oddly, those other announcers are describing the flight of the ball, whereas Barber was describing the outfielder, in this famous call from the 1947 World Series with Joe DiMaggio at bat:"Here's the pitch, swung on, belted...
The "Oh, Doctor" phrase was also picked up by some latter-day sportscasters, most notably Jerry Coleman, who was a New York Yankees infielder during the 1940s and 50s and later worked alongside Barber in the Yankees radio and TV booths.
In 1939, Barber broadcast the first major-league game on television. Barber's most frequent broadcasting partner was Connie Desmond;
While running CBS Sports, he became the mentor of another redheaded announcer -- a young Vin Scully -- recruiting the Fordham University graduate for CBS's football coverage, and eventually inviting him into the Dodgers' broadcast booth to succeed Harwell (after the latter's departure for the crosstown New York Giants).
Barber was the first person, outside of the team's board of directors, to be told by Dodger president Branch Rickey that the Dodgers had begun the process of racial desegregation in baseball, a process that led to the signing of Jackie Robinson as the first black player in major league baseball since the 1880s. As a Southerner, living with segregation as a fact of life written into law, Barber told Rickey that he wasn't sure he could broadcast the games, but said he would try. Observing Robinson's skill on the field and the way Robinson held up to the vicious abuse from opposing fans, Barber became an ardent supporter of Robinson and the black players who followed him, including Dodger stars Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe.
New York Yankees
Barber was determined to be a fair broadcaster, and not a "homer" who would seem to be cheering for his employer. By the end of the 1953 season, with Walter O'Malley having a controlling interest in Dodger ownership, Barber was pressured to become more of a homer. According to the baseball-broadcasting historian Curt Smith, however, Barber resigned from the Dodgers because O'Malley refused to back Barber in his demand that Gillette pay him a higher fee for telecasting the 1953 World Series. Barber declined Gillette's fee and was replaced on the series telecasts by Vin Scully, who partnered with Mel Allen. In 1954, Barber was hired by the crosstown Yankees.
With the Yankees, Barber increasingly strove to adopt a strictly neutral, dispassionately repertorial broadcast style, avoiding not only partisanship but also any emotional surges that would match the excitement of the fans. Some fans and critics found this later, more restrained Barber to be dull, especially in contrast to the more dramatic, emotive delivery of his famous Yankee colleague, Mel Allen.
Barber described one of the central differences between himself and Allen as how they described potential home runs. Barber would watch the outfielder, his movements and his eyes, and would thus have a better idea of whether the ball would be caught. It is clear from the Gionfriddo call that Barber is describing the action of the outfielder, not the ball. Curt Smith, author of Voices of Summer, summarized the difference between Barber and Allen in these words: "Barber was white wine, crepes suzette, and bluegrass music.
Later life
After his dismissal by the Yankees in 1966, Barber retired from baseball broadcasting. He would talk to host Bob Edwards about sports or other topics, including the flora at Barber's home in Tallahassee, Florida. Barber would call Edwards "Colonel Bob", referring to Edwards' Kentucky Colonel award from his native state. In 1993, Edwards' book Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship (ISBN 0-671-87013-0) was published, based on his Morning Edition segments with Red Barber.
Honors
In 1978, Barber joined former colleague Mel Allen to become the first broadcasters to receive the Ford C.
The Red Barber Radio Scholarship is awarded each year by the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications to a student studying sports broadcasting.
A WRUF microphone used by Barber during the 1930's is part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's collection.
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