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Barberie, Bret Barberie, 1992 Leaf #288, Expos

Player: Barberie, Bret

Card: 1992 Leaf #288

Position: 2B/3B/SS

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playerbio

Bret Edward Barberie (born August 16, 1967 in Long Beach, CA) is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, and Chicago Cubs. Before his professional career, Barberie attended the University of Southern California (USC) and played college baseball for the USC Trojans, and played for the United States national baseball team in the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1988 Baseball World Cup.

Barberie was first called up to the majors in June 1991, but was used sparingly, only coming to bat 20 times in his first month with the Expos, before being sent back down to the Triple A Indianapolis Indians. He was called back for good on August 2nd and went on a torrid hitting streak until the end of the season: from that point on, he hit .371.

In his first game back on August 2, he hit a home run batting left-handed against Danny Cox of the Philadelphia Phillies in the 3rd inning, and added another batting right-handed against Wally Ritchie in the 7th; only Tim Raines had performed this feat for the Expos before him. On September 8th, 1991 he started a triple play at third base in the 9th inning to clinch a win against the Cincinnati Reds. In a year where everything that could go wrong for the Expos did, Barberie was one of the few bright spots.

If 1991 was a dream season, 1992 was a nightmare. New manager Tom Runnells handed him the regular third base job in spring training, which meant that team captain and three-time Gold Glove winner Tim Wallach would move to first base. This was one of many moves that caused a player revolt against Runnells, leading to his firing on May 22nd. Barberie did not help matters by having a difficult season both at the plate and in the field, not surprisingly in the latter case since he had never played third base on a regular basis at any level. He ended up hitting .232 with a pathetic .281 slugging average, quickly losing his job back to Wallach.

As a result, Bret was unprotected for the expansion draft and was the seventh player chosen overall by the Florida Marlins. Bret had the first base hit for the Florida Marlins franchise on April 5, 1993. Interestingly, Bret missed a game in 1994, after managing to get chili pepper juice in his eyes while putting in his contact lenses.

Bret's father, Edward, played in the minor leagues. Bret was married to television personality Jillian Barberie from 1996 to 2002.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen and Wikipedia)

morecards

1994 Score #434
1994 Upper Deck #151

tourstops


Bret is also part of the Chicago Cubs Players Tour – Go To the Next Stop


See Bret’s baseball cards at TCDB


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