30-year Marliniversary: Barberie hits first inside-the-park homer in Marlins history

[Mike Ferguson]

30 years ago, Bret Barberie came through in the clutch with the most exciting play in baseball.

An original member of the franchise, Bret Barberie is known for collecting the first hit in Florida/Miami Marlins history. On this day 30 years ago, he accomplished another Marlins first.

Visiting the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on June 13, 1994 in just their second year as a franchise, the Florida Marlins entered the top of the ninth inning trailing 1-0.

Barberie led off the inning, and with the fifth pitch he saw from St. Louis closer Mike Pérez, Barberie hammered the ball to right-center field. Outfielders Mark Whiten and Ray Lankford converged to make the play, but collided. The ball bounced off the wall and rolled into center field.

By the time second baseman Geronimo Peña was able to come up with it, Barberie had made his way all the way around to home plate. Barberie would slide in easily, notching the first inside-the-park home run in Marlins history.

His “solo shot” tied the score at one apiece.

The inside-the-park home run served as Barberie’s only official at-bat of the evening, although he reached base safely in each of his other three plate appearances with two walks and a hit by pitch. The hit also kept Marlins starting pitcher Pat Rapp from taking the loss after allowing just a run on four hits in eight innings of work.

Unfortunately for Barberie, it wasn’t enough to get Florida over the hump. The Cardinals won the game in walk-off fashion when catcher Tom Pagnozzi singled home the winning run off reliever Robb Nen in the bottom half of the inning.

Nevertheless, Barberie will always hold the distinction of being the first member of the Marlins franchise to record an inside-the-park home run. That moment happened on this day three decades ago.

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[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Like many of the (especially) early Marlins, Barberie was developed in the Montreal Expos farm system. This is understandable, in that the Expos were a scouting and developmental model, followed by the natural familiarity brought over from the Loria regime - a similar situation with Bendix and the Rays. I consider the Expos as a model for the Marlins and other low-income teams. Of course, Montreal started from scratch with expansion in 1969 and realized adeptness in scouting and development was their lifeline to competitiveness. They generated MLB players at a prolific rate, including six current Hall of Famers in their 36 seasons. Indeed, their conveyor belt farm system allowed the low-income team to be competitive for significant portions of their existence.  Their system also generated top managerial and front-office talent distributed all over baseball. The Expos were the Rays before the Rays, as it were.