Utility Man Barney Friberg: The 1929 Phillies Most Valuable Player?

After losing an astounding 109 games in 1928, the 1929 Phillies amazed everyone by going 72-82-1 and finishing in fifth place "just" 27 1/2 games behind the pennant winning Chicago Cubs. The 27-game improvement by the Phillies was powered by the considerable offensive talents of Chuck Klein, Lefty O'Doul, Don Hurst, and Pinky Whitney. The Phillies finished first in the league in batting average (.309), home runs (153), on base percentage (.377), slugging percentage (.467) and total bases (2559).  An historically weak pitching staff, last in the league with an ERA of 6.13, kept the Phillies from rising higher in the standings. Despite all the fire power the Phillies possessed, manager Burt Shotton declared that the "most valuable man on our team" was a 29-year-old utility player named Barney Friberg.

Barney (short for his given name Gustav Bernhard*) was the Cookie Rojas of the 1920's Philadelphia Phillies. During his time with the Phils (1925-1932), Friberg played every position on the field, including one four inning stint as a pitcher in 1925. Friberg was primarily a third baseman when the Phillies picked him up on waivers from the Chicago Cubs on June 15, 1925. Soon, though, he was a jack-of-all-trades for the Phillies, filling in all over the diamond. His one appearance on the mound occurred on August 25 that year, when the Phillies had fallen behind the St. Louis Cardinals 12-5 in the first game of a double header. Barney pitched four innings, giving up just 2 runs on 4 hits and saving the Phillies bullpen in the process. Along the way, he struck out future teammate Tommy Thevenow.

In the spring of 1929, Shotton decided that he was going to convert Friberg into a full-time pitcher. Whether that one stint on the bump four years earlier had impressed Shotton or not is not recorded, but Shotton apparently decided he had plenty of offensive punch and he needed to strengthen the mound core. Added to this, Friberg had hit poorly in 1927 and 1928, .233 and .202 respectively, so Shotton had little to lose with his experiment. Friberg took regular turns on the bump all spring with mixed results, until shortstop Tommy Thevenow, acquired in a trade with the Cardinals over the winter, was involved in a serious automobile accident. The crash left Thevenow with two broken jaws and shattered cheekbones. With Thevenow in the hospital and out indefinitely, Friberg became the starting shortstop, and his pitching career was shelved.

Friberg responded to his new assignment in spectacular fashion. He had been hitting well all spring and the hot hitting continued into the season. On April 23, his eleventh inning two-run triple to left-center field in the spacious Polo Grounds, scored two and led the Phillies to a 3-1 victory over John McGraw's New York Giants. On Monday, May 13 Friberg was 4-for-5 with 4 RBIs, including a home run and a walk-off two-run double in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Phillies a 10-9 win over the Cardinals at Baker Bowl. He homered again the next day, while going 3-for-3, in a 4-1 loss to the Cards. During one hot stretch, Friberg had 24 hits in 11 games. By mid-May, Barney was hitting over .400.

Friberg couldn't quite keep up that torrid pace, but he continued to contribute. Shotton moved him from the eighth slot in the batting order, to seventh, and finally to second. Thevenow recovered from his injuries and returned to the lineup in July. Friberg spent 10 games on the bench, but when right fielder Denny Sothern was stricken with what appeared to be appendicitis, Barney became the starting right fielder. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "Barney Friberg is doing a good job in right field - a good job for an infielder." On August 5, he went 4-for 4 and scored the winning run as the Phils beat the Reds in Cincinnati, 7-6.

Friberg moved all around the outfield for the remainder of the season. As the starting centerfielder on August 27, he started the Phillies winning ninth inning rally with a double, scoring the tying run as the Phillies overcame the Cardinals, 7-6. In September, when second baseman Fresco Thompson went out with an injury, Friberg filled in capably there. 

After a bit of a September nosedive, Friberg ended the year with a .301 batting average. He was particularly effective at home in the Baker Bowl, where he hit for a .364 average and clubbed all seven of his home runs. He played in 128 total games, 74 at shortstop, 39 in the outfield, 8 at second base, and 2 at first base. All season long, wherever a hole needed to be plugged, Friberg filled it well. Shotton was not alone in his praise of Friberg. That year he finished 18th in the Most Valuable Player voting. **

Friberg had another fine season in more limited action in 1930, hitting .341, by far the best of his career. The Phillies, however, lost 102 games and fell back into the National League basement. Barney stayed with the Phillies in a diminishing role through 1932. Released after the 1932 season, he hooked on with the Boston Red Sox for part of the 1933 season, his last in the Major Leagues. 

In 1958, at the age of 59, Barney Friberg was found dead in his car, the victim of an apparent heart attack.

* Both the Baseball Reference page on Friberg and his SABR Biography by Bill Nowlin list his name as "Bernie." But all mentions of Friberg in the Philadelphia newspapers refer to him as "Barney" and his family confirms that it is as Barney that he was popularly known.

**O'Doul finished second to the Cubs Rogers Hornsby.