Red Barber was a big league baseball announcer for 33 seasons:
1934 – 1938 Cincinnati Reds
1939 – 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers
1954 – 1966 New York Yankees
Red was one of the first great baseball voices, and fate chose him to be the very first man to do a number of things. For example, he was the first full-time broadcaster for the Reds and the Dodgers. He called the big leagues’ first night game. Historically, Barber announced the first televised games in both Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Red Barber and Mel Allen were the first two men to receive the Ford C. Frick Award and be inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Significantly, Red was also the first one to take an analytical approach to the craft of play-by-play. He prepared for games by learning players’ background information. He studied statistics and past performances and he gave the listening audience a detailed description of exactly what was happening in a baseball game. Hence, the CD title is “Play-By-Play Pioneer.”
I have found some great old radio clips that I think you will love. Certainly, most sports fans have heard Barber’s famous calls of the 1947 World Series involving the heroics of players like Cookie Lavagetto and Al Gionfriddo$hellip;I have included them here.
Additionally, you will hear Red Barber at his best in calling games from the:
• 1935 World Series when Red was 27
• 1941 All-Star game featuring Ted Williams’ dramatic game-winning homerun
• 1946 Army – Notre Dame football game known as “The Game of the Century”
• 1951 NL playoff finale with Bobby Thomson hitting one of baseball’s most famous homeruns
• 1961 Yankee season when Roger Maris chased and surpassed Babe Ruth
• 1978 Hall of Fame speech, and much more!
Please enjoy “Red Barber, Play-By-Play Pioneer.”
Pat Hughes
March 2009
Track Listing
1. Open
2. Intro
3. Play-By-Play Pioneer
4. 1947 World Series
5. Beginnings
6. 1935 World Series
7. Fall Classics & All-Star Games
8. Catbird Seat & Eggtimer
9. Brooklyn
10. Army – Notre Dame
11. Edward R. Murrow
12. Bobby Thomson
13. Yankees
14. Cooperstown
15. Legacy
16. Close
17. Credits