JAMES “JIM” BARRY (Athlete, Charter Class of 1998)

Jim Barry was Rhode Island’s leading hitter during the 1948 high school baseball season, hitting .525 with five home runs and eleven doubles in Class C and an incredible .964 slugging percentage.

Achieving All Class C honors as a freshman outfielder in 1945, Jim went on to earn All Class C and All State recognition in both 1946 and 1948.  Unfortunately he and two of his teammates missed most of the 1947 season because, according to Jim, “they had been bad boys.”

He was a starter on Warren High’s 1945 and 1946 State Baseball Champions.  In 1948 he and his brother Buzz led the Redskins to the Class C finals, where they were upended by the Broncos of Burrillville.

The center fielder on Warren Post’s 1946 American Legion Baseball State Runners-Up, Jim was a member of the Warren Twilight League All Stars in 1947.

Following high school, Jim played professional baseball from 1948 to 1952, reaching as high as the AAA Louisville Colonels.  He had a lifetime batting average of over .300 before injuries ended his minor league career.

He also hit more than .300 while competing for Warren in the Warren versus Bristol Baseball Little World Series from 1946 to its final year of 1949.  During those four years Warren was victorious three times.

In a 1948 high school game against “one of those teams from the other side of the Bay,” Jim slid into home plate and thought that the catcher had tagged him too vigorously.  So he jumped to his feet and slugged the offender in the jaw. 

At that point the opposing manager raced out and said, “You can’t do that, Barry.”  Jim’s response was to slug him as well.  Those who were there that day said that he only thought about hitting the umpire, former New York Football Giant and future American League ump Hank Soar.  Notwithstanding that fact, Jim was ejected from the game.