Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship

I remember listening to NPR's Bob Edwards weekly interviews with legendary sportscaster Red Barber -- every Friday at 7:35 Eastern, for four minutes -- only a few years after the interviews began. It was the highlight of my morning commute, even though I could care less, back then, about baseball or any other sport. The interviews were a sunny moment in which a delightful old southern gentleman might share stories about his garden or tell a tale about a baseball hero. I found this book at a used bookstore, started to read it, and... well, there went the rest of MY day. Bob Edwards' memoir isn't really an in-depth biography of Red Barber. It is, however, a really well-written, immensely readable tribute to the conversations the two men had, and an ode to Barber's accomplishments (he was on the air for almost 63 years). Edwards includes several of their conversations (each was, after all, only four minutes long) and adds comments and context. If you're a sports fan, particularly a baseball fan of a Certain Age, there's no question that you'll enjoy this book. There's LOTS of wonderful anecdotes, from the historical (Red Barber was the first to televise a major league baseball game), to the people-anecdotal (when WOR first played "A Symphony in D for the Dodgers," said Barber, "I thought [Larry MacPhail] would just break all buttons on his vest"), to the thought provoking (night games were reluctantly adopted even though the owners "said it was against tradition, that you were supposed to play in God's sunlight"). What fun! But I got the most out of this book from my professional persona as a journalist. Because, after all, that's what Red Barber was; he spent several hours at a time telling people what he saw, and bringing a game to life. I learned a lot from the attitudes he shared. Primarily among them was to avoid partisanship. In one interview, he told Edwards, "I did everything I could not to be a rooter, Bob, because...I was describing to millions of people who could not see the event for themselves... And I felt it was up to me to describe what happened to the ball and to the people who touched the ball, and then let each listener in her or her way have whatever rooting interest they wanted to have." I don't think I could better express what journalists aim for. He was also a master at painting a picture in words. As Edwards writes, "Red painted pictures more real than the work of any artist." He's famous for bringing folksy expressions to the game: "the catbird seat," "ducks on the pond," and a close game as "tighter than a new pair of shoes on a rainy day." I dare say many younger baseball fans (at least those who haven't watched Baseball - A Film By Ken Burns) will be surprised by how much of the game's lingo came from Barber. I was particularly touched by Barber's awareness of his own personal growth, with the most famous example of his relationship with Jackie Robinson. "Red Barber had grown up in a completely segregated world,"

This was supposed to be an "easy read" - the equilibrium-restoring counterbalance to Hank Greenspun's superlative but intense memoir, Where I Stand. I expected nothing. What I discovered was a book that could not have been better written had its author been E.B. White. "Growing up, we didn't know we were poor." Now I know that I, too, had "grown up poor," in a way - not having known about or listened to National Public Radio's four-minute weekly radio broadcasts of the conversations between Bob Edwards and Red Barber, aired for twelve years in the 1980s-90s. Walter Lanier Barber [1908-1992], baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, and N.Y. Yankees, really must have been a saint. Who else could have seen the good side of the insufferable egotist who had publicly humiliated Julius De Rosa on his prime time TV show? (Red, on Arthur Godfrey: "He was completely himself." Yes, unfortunately, he was). Edwards provided the second reason why Red should have spent his entire career with the California Angels: "We couldn't talk about basketball. I love it; he hated it." Born in 1952, I listened to countless games described on the radio by Red and Mel Allen, one of my childhood heroes. Mel remains forever unforgettable. But oddly, today - after listening to Red on You Tube postings - I could not recall having heard the sound of his voice. This was more than compensated for by FWR, who introduced me to the Red Barber whose complexity, generosity, & spiritual wealth I never knew existed. (FWR also led to the discovery that in September 1966, Red & I had shared a common fate, both lives having been steamrolled by brutal change. The era of the Yankee management hiring spineless announcers had begun, & Red was out. A few miles away, my cherished Riverdale had abruptly ceased to be home). Like financial inheritances received by wastrels, Red's legacy has been squandered. He hated untrained, unprofessional, hyper-ventilating ex-jocks behind microphones & in front of TV cameras. But they were the wave of the future in 1966, when his career with the Yankees ignominiously ended after bluntly being told just before the end of the season that he wasn't coming back in 1967 (he never had a chance to say farewell, publicly. The three last meaningless Yankee games were all washed away by the autumn rains). Vin Scully, trained by Red and now the last link to the Red Barber era, must be appalled by today's sports media. Chris Collinsworth, Gary Myers, and a very few other excellent play-callers and color commentators are outnumbered 15-1 by verbose yahoos who, like high school truants, are cowards - deadly afraid of being thought to be different, or distinguished, or God forbid, well-educated. (State repeatedly during your ESPN job interview: "We talked about"..."kind of"..."a little bit"..."sort of"..."these things drive coaches crazy"..."we talk about"..."a little bit"..."kind of." Assert the existence of non-exist

This is a beautiful little book about a man dedicated to his craft and the relationship he developed with a radio commentator 40 years his junior. Bob Edwards brings Red Barber to life and anyone fortunate enough to have heard their all too short weekly get togethers will enjoy the background information on the amazing Red Barber.Edwards voice is familiar to millions but he grew to respect and admire this (perhaps) old fashioned southern gentleman and his gentle ways. Barber was truly a man of strong convictions and a basic goodness that shines through in this book. Heartwarming and fascinating.