bill, I don't know when Red Barber was using this, but the first *written citation is this: 2. Phr. the catbird seat: a superior or advantageous position. U.S. slang.
1942 J. Thurber in 55 Short Stories from New Yorker (1949) 61 ‘Sitting in the catbird seat’ meant sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him