The catbird's seat - what it is

This is rather off-topic, but there was a good question in the Rumors thread: PhoenixPhilly posed the plaintive ponderable, "(what the heck is a cat-bird's seat anyway?)"

The Internet is a marvelous tool, boys and girls:

>"...Red Barber announces the Dodger games over the radio and he uses those expressions....'sitting in the catbird seat' means sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him."
Red Barber, for you non-baseball fans, was not a fictional character. He was a popular radio announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s and '50s. Barber had a musical, soft Southern accent that somehow seemed perfect for Dem Bums, and he in fact did use those Southern expressions. After he retired, he wrote about his long career in baseball in Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat. Barber claimed to have picked up the phrase from a fellow poker player. It's definitely Southern, and probably 19th century, but is officially listed as "origin unknown."<

Based on that description,  I'm not sure that Gillick is actually in the catbird's seat - as of this writing, we still have Burrell and everyone knows we don't want him - but it's a nice place to shoot for.