July 2019 - 26

his favorite partners, Peter Rank, after a particularly vitriolic tirade. Though he may have mellowed a little in recent
years, particularly in his regular partnerships where mutual
respect usually flourished, he could still be impatient with
new partners who were still struggling to master the subtleties of his system.
However, an excerpt from a Bulletin interview conducted
with Kerri Shuman in 1979 indicates that he wasn't one to
hold a grudge:
What's it like to play with Barry? It's exciting. When things
are going well, you're just on a merry-go-round. Like a high.
But I know how to handle him when he gets mad. What do you
do? I realize it's temporary and I just tell him off sometimes.
"Oh now, Barry, stop being like that," or something like that.
Even when he's had a bad session and he's gotten to screaming, it's all over as soon as the session is gone. He'll get up from
the table, get the matchpoints, show you his score, rip it up
and say, "Let's go get a drink ..."
Though he was cordial to all, as a rule Crane declined to
mingle with the crowd. Where many players would cleave
together after a session and go out to eat en masse, Barry
would often be satisfied to find solitude in a movie theater,
or he might go to his room where he might pick up one of
several best-selling novels he read each week. Habitually
conscious of his weight, he frequently would forgo supper.
Inevitably, he acquired a reputation as a loner. Actually,
he just picked his friends carefully. Those friends, though,
would tell you that he was extremely open, generous, personable and loyal.
Crane was not universally liked. The world of tournament
bridge is a highly competitive world where egos are built up
and torn down, and the old saying that "everybody loves a
winner" has little place here.
Anyone who won as much as Barry had to create a lot of
losers, and losers need to rationalize their losses. Therefore,
Crane often was labeled as "aloof," "insensitive" and "smug"
by those less successful than he.
Really, they resented Crane not so much as his monumental accomplishments. And some people disliked him
because of his system, which they viewed with disdain as
one designed strictly to kill the weaker players. Many professionals no doubt couldn't help viewing him with disfavor,
because his successes kept reminding people that the best
amateurs were fully as good as the best pros. Furthermore,
they feared the huge influence he wielded over the outcome
of the yearly Top 500 competition.
Not that all of the enmity was unearned. Crane's competitive drive was so strong that it impelled him to do whatever
it took to win. Sometimes his efforts stretched to a questionable fringe - there were reported incidents of gamesmanship and other self-serving tactics during the 1984 Top
500 race, and Crane himself once characterized himself
thusly: "I can be malicious, petty and vindictive - but I'm a
good friend."

26 Bridge Bulletin July 2019

Kerri Shuman and Barry Crane, 1973 Mixed Pairs

None of the things people said and felt really mattered
much to Crane, though. Any accounts he had to settle were
strictly with himself.
With so many good technical players around these days,
will to win is an important factor in tournament success.
Crane's intensity is illustrated by an anecdote told by
Charles MacCracken, a tournament director and former
Crane partner.
There was a four-session open pairs event at a San Francisco regional. The two-session final had a 25 top. Crane had
won the event going away. At about 4 a.m., MacCracken finally wrapped up his directorial chores and headed for bed.
Passing through the hotel lobby, he encountered Crane and
his partner of the day, with Barry in the middle of a stern
lecture about one of the few hands that had proved costly
that day. MacCracken says the last thing he heard was, "We
could have had 900 today if you'd only ...."
On another occasion, the force of the Crane personality was brought out. At an Albuquerque regional, the recap
sheets were posted in a narrow foyer. After the session, what
seemed like thousands of bridge players packed like sardines into the tight space, waiting anxiously for the scores
to be posted. MacCracken finished matchpointing his recap
sheet and plunged into the writhing mass of people, trying to
make his way to the wall to post it. Suddenly, he came upon
an oasis in the middle of the crowd. There stood Barry and
his partner - and needless to say, Barry was holding forth
with considerable animation about some of his partner's
errors during the session ... "If you and I are going to play
bridge, we are going to play my way, because when we play
my way we win." Meanwhile, the veritable crush of players surrounding the two was giving Barry and his spirited
conversation a wide and respectful berth.
He may have gotten used to winning bridge tournaments,
but he never tired of playing the game. "Everything's different - that's the interest that draws me," he said. "I've never
run into the same hand twice."
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July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2019