...the best Ralph Barbieri obituary I've read is from our Blogmaid:
Every once in a while I’d google Ralph Barbieri to see what he was doing, and it was only a
couple of weeks ago that I found a recent article in The Athletic (I had to subscribe and then
cancel my membership to read it). I was saddened to read that he was wheelchair bound, but
wasn’t prepared for the news today.
I replied to a few people on Twitter with a cat story. Ralph had a beloved cat, Sunshine, and
my ex-husband Lee was Sunshine’s vet. Once when Sunshine was sick and had to stay at
the pet hospital, Ralph asked us to put a radio next to his cage so he could listen to Ralph’s
show, and Ralph would talk to him during the broadcast.
No one else on Twitter mentioned Sunshine, but Scott Ostler retweeted my story, and I’ve
gotten a lot of likes.
I also remember that he coined the term “The Jewel” for what is now Oracle Park. In fact,
I think he took credit for it being built at all.
Sunshine was near the end of his life when Ralph was trying to figure out how to have a baby,
and Lee and I went to his baby shower when he was expecting Tayte. (Scott Ostler was there,
too.) I think Tayte was barely 10 before Ralph was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and now he’s
just turned 20. There were so many objectionable things that came out of Ralph's mouth (and
Tom Tolbert’s) on their show, but Ralph really wanted a child, and it’s so sad that his experiences
— and Tayte’s -- were shadowed by his illness and now his early death.
Angels fly because they take themselves lightly.
RIP Ralph.
