3 of Baseball’s Ultimate Utility Players

Jimmie Dykes - a career .280 hitter who could play in every position

They called them a one-man bench. They were versatile players who could play almost any position – sometimes more than one position in a game – and not weaken the team.

Here are three examples of these ultimate utility players. – Norman L. Macht

Woody English

Hall of Fame outfielder Babe Herman said that Woody English was the only guy he ever saw who was so good he couldn’t play. “When I was with the Cubs I asked, ‘Why isn’t English playing?’

They told me, ‘If Stan Hack gets hurt, we’ll put Woody on third and he’ll help the position. If Billy Jurges gets hurt, we’ll put him at shortstop.

If Billy Herman gets hurt, we’ll put him at second and not be hurt.’ They told the press Woody’s heel was hurting him. 

Finally, he told the writers he was getting tired of that stuff. There was nothing wrong with his foot.”  In only one year out of 12 did Herman play the same position in every game he was in.

He was a lifetime .286 hitter, the Cubs’ captain, the ultimate utility player.

Jimmie Dykes     

In 21 years 1918-1939 with the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox, Jimmie Dykes played only one position in three seasons: second base in 1921, and third base at Chicago in 1933 and 1936.

The rest of his years he was the ultimate utility player, a career .280 hitter. In 1921 he led the AL in errors and assists at second base, and the next year did the same playing third.

In 1927 Dykes was Connie Mack’s bench. One morning in June Mack asked him if he had ever played first base. “Never saw a first baseman’s glove in my life,” said Dykes.

Work out there in practice, Mack said. That afternoon Dykes was in the lineup at first base.

He played 82 games there, finishing a triple play in one game, and filled in at every other position except catcher, even picking up a retroactive save in two pitching turns. Oh, and he hit .324.

Barney Friberg

August 24, 1925, was a typical day at Baker Bowl, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. After five innings of the first game of a doubleheader, the seventh-place Phillies had scored five runs, just below their average for the year.

But the visiting Cardinals, scoring in every inning but the third, had racked three pitchers for a 12-5 lead (the Phillies would place third in runs scored in the NL, but give up more runs than anybody in either league).

Phillies’ second baseman Barney Friberg, bought from the Cubs on June 15 for the $7,500 waiver price, volunteered to take over the mound duties. Manager Art Fletcher agreed.

Facing a lineup that included Ray Blades .342, Rogers Hornsby .403, and Jim Bottomley .367, Friberg relied on a straight fastball and dinky curve to shut them out for three innings before giving up two runs in the ninth.

He struck out one, walked three and gave up four hits.

Then he went back to second base and had two hits in the nightcap.

It was Friberg’s only major league pitching appearance. Having played a few games in the outfield for the Cubs and every infield position for both teams that year, he had missed only catching to complete the defensive circuit.

That was remedied on a cold September 22 in Pittsburgh.

Whether Art Fletcher was motivated by sentiment or desperation is unknown. It’s unlikely that any thought of a record was involved.

At the end of five, the Pirates led, 10-0. Right-hander Ray Kremer had a no-hitter going. But the Phillies scored three in the sixth, and trailed, 14-3, after batting in the top of the eighth. They had already gone through two shortstops and two catchers. 

For the last of the eighth, Fletcher sent a coach, Benny Meyer, out to play second base and moved Friberg behind the plate.

It was the first time Friberg had caught since he had started out at that position in grammar school.

While that one inning as a catcher did not catapult Friberg into the Hall of Fame, it did earn him a Ripley Believe it or Not cartoon for playing every position that year.

Including his 44 games with the Cubs, he had played 77 at second base, 40 at third, two at shortstop, six at first and 12 in the outfield.

After two years as the Cubs’ regular third baseman in 1923-24, Friberg played all year at one position in just two of his eight years with the Phillies.

The rest of the time he was one of those rare and often unsung utility players who can fill in anywhere without hurting a club.

Many observers named him the most valuable utility player in the league.  A career .281 hitter, he had a strong arm, throwing frozen ropes from third to first.

More important, he had the unique ability to adjust instantly to a switch in position; moving from third to second in mid-game, he could adapt to the shorter toss to first without zinging the ball and knocking the first baseman’s mitt into the seats.

Shifting back to short or third, he could as quickly lengthen his throw and restore the heat.

On opening day in 1925, Friberg had started at third for the Cubs and finished the game at shortstop. The next day he started at short and finished at third.

On May 20 he started in left field and finished at third. And the next day he started in left and finished at first base.

In the spring of 1929, when the starting shortstop was injured, he played short for half the season.

The next spring the third baseman came down with appendicitis and Barney was back on third after more than a year.

In his final year, 1933 with the Red Sox, he appeared in 17 games, divided as always between second, short and third.

Even in death, Barney Friberg played a backup role. At almost the same hour he died on December 8, 1958, Hall of Famer Tris Speaker suffered a fatal heart attack while fishing.

The early Red Sox star’s death covered the front and sports pages of the Massachusetts newspapers, pushing the Lynn, Massachusetts, resident to a brief obituary in his home town paper.