Friday marked what would have been the 115th birthday of Columbus native Walter Lanier “Red” Barber, who is considered by many to be one of the “all-time greats” of sports broadcasting.
But while Barber is no longer around, his legacy lives on in the form of a biography, “Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend,” by Judith R. Hiltner and James R. Walker.
The book has garnered praise throughout the country, including being runner up out of 10 finalists for the “Spitball Magazine” Casey Award for the best baseball book of the year, one of three finalists for the Seymour Medal given by Society for American Baseball Research for the best book in history or biography, number four on the “Sports Collectors Digest” list of 40 top books in baseball for the year and Book List’s top 10 in sports and recreation for the year. The Book List is published by the American Library Association.
“To me, it just reflects that it’s an outstanding biography and a number of people have recognized this and honored this,” said Glenn Lautzenhiser of Columbus, who contributed to the research done by the authors of the biography. “It just shows how thorough and comprehensive and how fascinating this book is about the life and times of Red Barber. He truly was one of the all-time greats.”
Lautzenhiser is a Barber fan, and jumped at the opportunity to contribute to the writing of the book.
“About two years ago, I got a call from a university professor in Chicago,” Lautzenhiser said. “He said, ‘Glenn, I just want you to know that myself and my wife have decided to write a biography of Red Barber. Your name has been given to us and we want to talk to you about Red. But we also want to come and talk to you about the influences he would have experienced in Columbus and meet some people.’”
The two came into town and spent two days researching Barber and meeting numerous people.
This trip turned out to be very fruitful, and the people of Columbus gained recognition in the finished book.
“In the Acknowledgments section at the beginning, he is very complimentary of Birney Imes, myself, Derek Rogers, general manager at WCBI, Harry Sanders on the Board of Supervisors, Mona Vance-Ali at the library, Chuck Yarbrough at Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science and others,” Lautzenhiser said.
Barber was a long-time broadcaster for Major League Baseball, spending a bulk of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Throughout his career, Lautzenhiser said Barber mentored many broadcasters who went on to be considered greats in their own right, such as Ernie Harwell and Vin Scully.
But Lautzenhiser said Barber never forgot where he came from.
“So much of his early development occurred here in Columbus and he credits the person he became because of the influence of Columbus,” he said.
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