Red Barber Walter Lanier " Red " Barber ( February 17 , 1908 – October 22 , 1992 ) was an American sportscaster . Barber , nicknamed " The Ol ' Redhead " , was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball , calling play - by - play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds ( 1934 – 38 ) , Brooklyn Dodgers ( 1939 – 1953 ) , and New York Yankees ( 1954 – 1966 ) . Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen , Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional football in his primary market of New York City . Biography . Early years . Barber was born 1908 in Columbus , Mississippi . He was a distant relative of poet Sidney Lanier and writer Thomas Lanier Williams . The family moved to Sanford , Florida in 1918 and , at the age of 21 , he hitchhiked to Gainesville and enrolled at the University of Florida , majoring in education . During his first year he worked at various jobs including part - time janitor at the University Club . There in January 1930 Barber got his start in broadcasting . An agriculture professor had been scheduled to appear on WRUF , the university radio station , to read a scholarly paper over the air . When the professor ' s absence was discovered minutes before the broadcast was to begin , janitor Barber was called in as a substitute . Thus the future sportscaster ' s first gig was reading " Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics " . After those few minutes in front of a microphone , Barber decided to switch careers . He became WRUF ' s director and chief announcer and covered Florida football games that autumn . Then he dropped out of school to focus on his radio work . After four more years at WRUF he landed a job broadcasting the Cincinnati Reds on WLW and WSAI when Powel Crosley , Jr . , purchased the team in 1934 . On Opening Day 1934 ( April 17 ) , Barber attended his first major league game and broadcast its play - by - play , as the Reds lost to the Chicago Cubs 6 - 0 . He called games from the stands of Cincinnati ' s renamed Crosley Field for the next five seasons . Brooklyn Dodgers . Barber had been hired by Larry MacPhail , then president of the Reds . When MacPhail moved on to be president of the Dodgers for the 1939 season , he took the play - by - play man along . In Brooklyn , Barber became an institution , widely admired for his folksy style . He was also appreciated by people concerned about Brooklyn ' s reputation as a land of " dees " and " dems " . Barber became famous for his signature catchphrase s , including these : To further his image as a Southern gentleman , Barber would often identify players as " Mister " , " big fella " , or " old " ( regardless of the player ' s age ) : A number of play - by - play announcers including Chris Berman have adopted his use of " back , back , back " to describe a long fly ball with potential to be a home run . Those other announcers are describing the flight of the ball but Barber was describing the outfielder in this famous call from Game 6 of the 1947 World Series . Joe DiMaggio was the batter : The phrase " Oh , Doctor " was also picked up by some later sportscasters , most notably Jerry Coleman , who was a New York Yankee infielder during the 1940s and 50s and later worked alongside Barber in the Yankees ' radio and TV booths . In Game 4 of that same 1947 Series , Barber memorably described Cookie Lavagetto ' s ninth - inning hit to break up Bill Bevens ' no - hitter and win the game at once : In 1939 Barber broadcast the first major - league game on television , on experimental NBC station W2XBS . In 1946 he added to his Brooklyn duties a job as sports director of the CBS Radio Network , succeeding Ted Husing and continuing through 1955 . There his greatest contribution was to conceive and host the " CBS Football Roundup " , which switched listeners back and forth between broadcasts of different regional college games each week . For most of Barber ' s run with the Dodgers , the team was broadcast over radio station WMGM ( later WHN ) at 1050 on the AM dial . From the start of regular television broadcasts until their move to Los Angeles , the Dodgers were on WOR - TV , New York ' s Channel 9 . Barber ' s most frequent broadcasting partner in Brooklyn was Connie Desmond . Barber developed a severe bleeding ulcer in 1948 and had to take a leave of absence from broadcasting for several weeks . Dodgers president Branch Rickey arranged for Ernie Harwell , the announcer for the minor - league Atlanta Crackers , to be sent to Brooklyn as Barber ' s substitute in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper . While running CBS Sports , Barber became the mentor of another redheaded announcer . He recruited the Fordham University graduate Vin Scully for CBS football coverage , and eventually invited him into the Dodgers ' broadcast booth to succeed Harwell in 1950 ( after the latter ' s departure for the crosstown New York Giants ) . Barber was the first person outside the team ' s board of directors to be told by Branch Rickey that the Dodgers had begun the process of racial desegregation in baseball , which led to signing Jackie Robinson as the first black player in the major leagues after the 1880s . As a Southerner , having lived with racial segregation as a fact of life written into law , Barber told Rickey that he wasn ' t sure he could broadcast the games , but he said he would try . Observing Robinson ' s skill on the field and the way Robinson held up to the vicious abuse from opposing fans , Barber became an ardent supporter of him and the black players who followed , including Dodger stars Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe . ( This story is told in Barber ' s 1982 book , " 1947 : When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball " . ) During this period , Barber also broadcast numerous World Series for Mutual radio and in 1948 and 1952 for NBC television , frequently teaming with Yankees announcer Mel Allen . He also called New York Giants football from 1942 to 1946 , as well as several professional and college football games on network radio and TV , including the NFL Championship Game , Army - Navy Game , and Orange Bowl . New York Yankees . Barber wanted a higher fee from Gillette , sponsor of the 1953 World Series on television , than was originally offered . When Dodgers owner Walter O ' Malley refused to back him , Barber declined Gillette ' s fee and Vin Scully partnered with the Yankees ' Mel Allen during the series . According to baseball historian Curt Smith , it was O ' Malley ' s lack of support that led to Barber resigning from the Dodgers later that October . Soon afterward the crosstown Yankees hired Barber . Just before the start of the 1954 season , surgery resulted in permanent deafness in one ear . In 1955 he took his long - running television program " Red Barber ' s Corner " from CBS to NBC . It ran from 1949 until 1958 . With the Yankees , Barber strove to adopt a strictly neutral , dispassionately reportorial broadcast style , avoiding not only partisanship but also any emotional surges that would match the excitement of the fans . He ' d already had a reputation as a " fair " announcer while with the Dodgers , as opposed to a " homer " who openly rooted for his team from the booth . Some fans and critics found this later , more restrained Barber to be dull , especially in contrast with Mel Allen ' s dramatic , emotive style . Barber described the ways they covered long fly balls as one of the central differences between Allen and himself . Allen would watch the ball . Thus his signature call , " That ball is going , going , it is GONE ! " , sometimes turned into , " It is going . . . to be caught ! " or " It is going . . . foul ! " Barber would watch the outfielder , his movements and his eyes , and would thus be a better judge whether the ball would be caught . This is evident in his famous call of Gionfriddo ' s catch ( quoted above ) . Many announcers say " back , back , back " describing the ball ' s flight . On the Gionfriddo call Barber is describing the action of the outfielder , not the ball . Curt Smith , in his book " Voices of Summer " , summarized the difference between Barber and Allen in these words : " Barber was white wine , crepes suzette , and bluegrass music . Allen was hot dogs , beer , and the U . S . Marine Corps Band . Like Millay , Barber was a poet . Like Sinatra , Allen was a balladeer . Detached , Red reported . Involved , Mel roared . " Under the ownership of CBS in 1966 , the Yankees finished tenth and last , their first time at the bottom of the standings since 1912 and after more than 40 years of dominating the American League . On September 22 , paid attendance of 413 was announced at the 65 , 000 - seat Yankee Stadium . Barber asked the TV cameras to pan the empty stands as he commented on the low attendance . Although denied the camera shots on orders from the Yankees ' head of media relations , he said , " I don ' t know what the paid attendance is today , but whatever it is , it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium , and this crowd is the story , not the game . " By a horrible stroke of luck , that game was the first for CBS executive Mike Burke as team president . A week later , Barber was invited to breakfast where Burke told him that his contract wouldn ' t be renewed . Later life . After his dismissal by the Yankees in 1966 , Barber retired from baseball broadcasting . He wrote several books , including his autobiography , " Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat " ; contributed to occasional sports documentary programs on radio and television , including Ken Burns ' famous Documentary " Baseball " ; and from 1981 until his death made weekly contributions to National Public Radio ' s " Morning Edition " program . He would talk to host Bob Edwards about sports or about other topics including the flora at his home in Tallahassee , Florida . Barber would call Edwards " Colonel Bob " , referring to the Kentucky Colonel award to Edwards by his native state . Red Barber died in 1992 in Tallahassee , Florida . In 1993 , Edwards ' book " Fridays with Red : A Radio Friendship " ( ISBN 0 - 671 - 87013 - 0 ) , based on his " Morning Edition " segments with Barber , was published . Honors . The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association inducted Barber into its Hall of Fame in 1973 . In 1978 , Barber joined former colleague Mel Allen to become the first broadcasters to receive the Ford C . Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum . In 1979 , he was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Florida , given a Gold Award by the Florida Association of Broadcasters , and inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame . In 1984 , Barber was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame ' s inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Don Dunphy , Ted Husing , Bill Stern and Graham McNamee . Barber was given a George Polk Award in 1985 and a Peabody Award in 1990 for his NPR broadcasts , and in 1995 he was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame . In 1993 , " TV Guide " named Barber the best sportscaster of the 1950s . In 1994 , two years after his death , Barber was seen several times throughout the Ken Burns series " Baseball " as he recounted memorable episodes of baseball history , especially of the Brooklyn Dodgers . The Red Barber Radio Scholarship is awarded each year by the University of Florida ' s College of Journalism and Communications to a student studying sports broadcasting . A WRUF microphone used by Barber during the 1930s is part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ' s collection . It has been displayed in the museum ' s " Scribes and Mikemen " exhibit , and from 2002 to 2006 it was featured as part of the " Baseball as America " traveling exhibition . In popular culture . In the upcoming film " 42 " , Barber will be played by John C . McGinley .