Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne: "Fridays with Red"

Bob Edwards hosted the National Public Radio morning show for years. For 12 of those years, baseball broadcaster Red Barber joined Edwards once a week for an over-the-fence conversation on subjects that ranged from the Brooklyn Dodgers to bird watching to blooming flowers.

Barber was retired in Florida during this time. He had concluded one of the most storied broadcast careers in history. For more than 60 years, Barber's voice was as familiar to sports fans, especially those in Brooklyn, as was the rising sun.

In "Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship," Edwards relates on-air conversations Barber had with him about the Dodgers, the baseball people Barber covered and worked with, and the impetuous business of baseball broadcasting.

Edwards also brings the humanity of both himself and Barber to the fore with his recitation of off-the-air conversations and visits.

I met Barber while working for the Mets. He was a broadcast hero to me. He was a gentleman who was hard driving in the booth and quiet off the air. This book expanded both sides of Barber's life.

More about the catbird seat in the video.

The good folks at the Enoch Pratt Free Library offer a reading suggestion each week. Shaileen Beyer, fiction librarian at the Central Branch, suggests "Redeployment" by Phil Klay.

"'Redeployment,' the National Book Award-winning story collection by veteran Phil Klay, explores the emotional impact of fighting and coming home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars," she says. "Embodying America at war is a colorful panoply of characters, all heartbreakingly realistic, from the vet who shoots his ailing dog amid painful memories to the youth who searches for some trace of his unit's first victims and finds, instead, a vast silence. Your ideas of war will alter when you read this psychologically deep, beautifully crafted book."

Knowing many who work with returning troops, the need to understand the extent of issues facing them is an American obligation that sadly is not going away soon. Thanks, Shaileen.

"Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears." ― John Lennon

Thanks to all who have sent messages and expanded my reading list by about a lifetime. Next week, Orioles skipper Buck Showalter will join us with a book memory that has stood the test of time.

Gary Thorne is the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN, and the 2015 season is his ninth with the club and 30th covering Major League Baseball. His blog will appear regularly throughout the season. The work from teen photographers participating in the Pratt Library Wide Angle Youth Media Photography Workshops will be exhibited at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, 1531 W. North Ave., and Govans Branch, 5714 Bellona Ave., through May 16. Hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

* Hitting the Books with Gary Thorne. © Copyright 2015 Gary F. Thorne. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gary F. Thorne and MASNsports.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.