This is Bird Note.

Join us now for another Brooklyn ball game.

This is the old Redhead, Red Barber.

Longtime Brooklyn Dodger and later New York Yankee announcer, Red Barber, grew up in Mississippi,

and was known for his folksy way of speaking.

They call him the big cat, and he swings that heavy batters though it weighed no more than a dry turkey feather.

One of his best-known catchphrases was that a player in a winning position was sitting in the catbird seat.

The lover's outside for ball three.

And it's three-nothing.

Fry sitting up there in the catbird seat.

But what is a cat-bird seat? And what. But what is a catbird seat?

And what for that matter is a catbird?

Well, the catbird part is easy.

It's a cousin of the mockingbird in the bird family known as the Mimits.

And it does sound a little like a cat.

As for the saying, it's been around since the 19th century, probably originating

in the southern U.S., where there are lots of gray catbirds. The bird is normally a sculptor,

foraging near the ground or in dense underbrush. But during the breeding season, gray catbirds

sometimes fight amongst themselves for the best territories.

As part of the competition, the two combatants sing their way to higher and higher perches.

The one who finally takes the highest perch is, well, sitting in the catbird seat.

With the best view, in control, top bird, so to speak.

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