Red Barber

Judith R. Hiltner is professor emeritus of literature and languages at Saint Xavier University and the author of books and articles on American literature and culture, including critical and biographical studies of Herman Melville, Philip Freneau, and Deborah Sampson. James R. Walker is professor emeritus of communication at Saint Xavier University and a past executive director of the International Association of Communication and Sport. He is the author of several books, including Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio (Nebraska, 2015), and is the coauthor of Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television (Nebraska, 2008).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsThree ScenesPrologue: Walter Lanier “Red” BarberPart 1. Foundations in the Old South: “I Was Carefully Taught”1. Cultured Roots2. Celery Capital of the World3. Bumming Corner4. “Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics”Part 2. Cincinnati: Big Break5. Pay Cut6. Rising ExpectationsPart 3. Brooklyn: The Barber of Flatbush7. Making of a Legend8. “Blood” on the Radio9. On the Home Front10. “Oh, Doctor!”11. Losing Control, Gaining a PurposePart 4. Yankee Years: Never at Home12. Stadium Work13. Breakfast in ManhattanPart 5. Return to Florida: A Writerly Broadcaster14. A Developing Writer, A Darker Vision15. Hall of Fame BroadcasterPart 6. Red’s Renaissance: “Red Barber Moved People”16. National Public Radio17. A Closed Family18. LegaciesEpilogue: Walter Lanier “Red” Barber, RevisitedNotesBibliographyIndex

"The 'Old Red Head' made his fame . . . with the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, where he spiced his calls with folksy Barberisms like 'rhubarb' for arguments and fights on the field, 'the catbird seat' for dominance, and 'the bases are F.O.B.'-'full of Brooklyns.' Now his story is enshrined. . . . It's quite a tale. . . . Red Barber was that voice-with, as the authors write, ‘the unique perspective and gifts of the storyteller’-that burnished baseball in one of its golden ages."-Wall Street Journal "Red Barber is a first-rate biography of an extremely important figure in baseball history."-Spitball Magazine "A compelling portrait of a sportscaster endowed with a rare breadth of social and psychological understanding."-Booklist, starred review "A thoroughly researched work with rich detail."-Bob D'Angelo, Sports Bookie "Hiltner and Walker are to be commended for their look into the life of a man who is largely forgotten but whose skills and character influenced sports announcers and fans for decades."-Alan L. Griggs, NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture "Anyone who wants to know what broadcasting was like before the advent of spin rates and exit velocity, reading Red Barber would be a good place to start."-Chip Ainsworth, Daily Hampshire Gazette “Red Barber is one of the greatest and most influential baseball broadcasters ever to occupy the ‘catbird seat,’ as the ‘Ol’ Redhead’ called it. From Jackie Robinson’s debut to Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard ’Round the World. From Brooklyn’s beloved ‘Bums’ to the Mantle/Maris Yankees, to mentoring a young Vin Scully, Barber’s life and career are an important part of baseball history and the history of the craft he mastered. This complete and carefully researched biography is both merited and most welcome.”-Bob Costas, twenty-nine-time Emmy Award–winning broadcaster and 2018 Ford C. Frick Award honoree “Red Barber was the lilting voice of the Reds, the Dodgers, the Yankees, and National Public Radio. But more than that, he was the conscience of baseball, a man who believed in the power of broadcast for the good of the game and its listeners. Red was perched in the catbird seat while big-league baseball grew in ways he could barely have imagined; he grew with it, as an announcer and as an American. With Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend, the authors have given this complicated, important figure the biography he deserves.”-John Thorn, official historian, Major League Baseball “At last a full biography of a legendary sports broadcasting pioneer. Red Barber balanced responsible reporting with charming entertainment. Judith Hiltner and James Walker explain how the Old Redhead retained his personal integrity in a field where baseball, broadcasting, and sponsors want total control.”-Bob Edwards, author of Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship “Red Barber’s voice was my lullaby. He sang me to sleep from the catbird seat, his honeyed literacy suffusing my dreams and forming the bedrock of my writing life in baseball. When I stupidly sent him my raunchy, fictional love letter to the game, hoping he would embrace it, it showed just how little I knew about this complex and courtly gentleman, the seminal voice of baseball broadcasting. Now, thanks to Judith Hiltner and James Walker, Walter Lanier ‘Red’ Barber has belatedly received the serious and definitive biography he deserves.”-Jane Leavy author of The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created