Fenway
01-13-2008, 11:24 PM
George Vecsey of the NY Times looks back at the great radio baseball announcers and most were from the south
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/13/sports/13vecsey.2.190.jpg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/sports/baseball/13vecsey.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=barber&oref=slogin
When Branch Rickey confided that he would soon sign an unspecified black player, Barber had considered resigning rather than officiate over the breakdown in Jim Crow. Barber’s wife, the wise Miss Lylah, told him to have a martini and sleep on it, and in the morning he recalled a passage in the Bible that persuaded him to treat Robinson as a great competitor rather than a sociological or historical phenomenon.
“I know that if I have achieved any understanding and tolerance in my life,” Barber wrote years later, “I thank Jackie Robinson. He did far more for me than I did for him.”
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/13/sports/13vecsey.2.190.jpg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/sports/baseball/13vecsey.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=barber&oref=slogin
When Branch Rickey confided that he would soon sign an unspecified black player, Barber had considered resigning rather than officiate over the breakdown in Jim Crow. Barber’s wife, the wise Miss Lylah, told him to have a martini and sleep on it, and in the morning he recalled a passage in the Bible that persuaded him to treat Robinson as a great competitor rather than a sociological or historical phenomenon.
“I know that if I have achieved any understanding and tolerance in my life,” Barber wrote years later, “I thank Jackie Robinson. He did far more for me than I did for him.”