red barber board game

[Skoonj]

I have played this game hundreds of times, and had kept scorebooks of games for years. I don't have a complete game, but do have two of the boards, which I obtained from William D. Hart. Mr. Hart designed the Red Barber game, which was copyright 1947 and 1950, and according to Mr. Hart was no longer manufactured after 1952. My friend and playing companion, Danny Bickman's father Nathan wrote to Mr. Hart on our behalf in 1977. He was kind enough to respond. He had no remaining Red Barber games, but sent us two of the boards, but not backed by cardboard. They were simply the original printed paper, sent in a rolled mailing tube. One remains in the mailing tube, but the other I have had laminated so we could play the game.

In his letter, Mr. Hart said he had designed a new game, the Real-Action Baseball Game. He sent us a copy, which I have. The game is boxed. The board is mounted on better grade cardboard than the Red Barber game, though the appearance is similar. The players are red and yellow, rather than red and blue in Red Barber. It has a spinner rather than dice, but it does have a ball (we used a button).

One of Danny's Red Barber games were purchased at the Baseball Hall of Fame (I think he had three all told, but none exists today). In the 1980s I went to their store, hoping they had copies left. They didn't but one of the staff said they ran out only recently.