The curious case of 1987 Topps #700 Dave Bergman

[BBCgalaxee]

For decades, Topps routinely gave the best in the game a card number ending in double zeros in their sets.

For instance, Reggie Jackson had 12 cards which ended in 00.

Pete Rose had 9 and Willie Mays 14.
And the list goes on and on.

And then there's Dave Bergman who somehow landed a double zero in the iconic 1987 set. Yes, Dave Bergman.

The double zero cards in 1987 included Garvey, Rose, Reggie, Brett, Mattingly, Parker....And Bergman.

Prevailing thought as to how Bergman got such a prestigious number is that he was a last minute replacement for a just retired superstar who Topps decided to not include in their product.

There were some notable players who called it quits in 1986 such as Seaver, Blue, Kingman etc but they all were included in the set.

Probably the most notable who retired the previous year and didn't have a card that year was Tony Perez.

Was #700 planned for him? In all likelihood, no because Topps' history of Perez card numbers didn't include double zeros for the most part.

So maybe only Topps knows because there's no logical explanation.

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[RStadlerASU22]

Dis you actually come up with this? How did that actually cross your mind?

Ryan

 

[mchenrycards]

I dont think there is any rhyme or reason as to why Topps chose Bergman since, as you mentioned, these card numbers were usually saved for the perennial mega star player. Since Bergman was not even considered a star let alone a superstar that year, he must have been a last minute fill in for someone such as Seaver who retired the year before. We may never know this full story on this mystery.

 

[BBCgalaxee]

Dis you actually come up with this? How did that actually cross your mind?

Ryan

I always knew about these numbers as a kid as well as the ones which ended in "50"

But I can't say I remembered anything about Bergman until I read a story in an old Beckett.

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[olerud363]

I like the numbering system of givibg the 100's to the superstars and the 50's to the semistars of the day. Makes looking through older cards that much more interesting.

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[Mighty Bombjack]

When I took over as baseball editor for flagship Topps, the first thing I did was set the checklist for 2002 (I set it for 2003 as well). It bothered me that 2001 Topps series 2 didn't follow this pattern (500-Kent Mercker, 600-Russ Johnson, 700-Frank Catalanotto), but I know why. The guy I took over from really didn't care about cards or their history. Interestingly, nobody told me to do the numbering like this when I took the job, I just knew from my youth collecting that stars go on the numbers ending in 00 and 50.

 

[mrmopar]

I think if you look back, there are other instances where stars didn't get that numbering and commons did. It's kind of odd that it even was a "thing" to me.

 

[predatorkj]

As a set collector, I've pieced a good handful of topps sets together from pre 86 which is where I drew the line buying them complete. I've found it actually cheaper to build the set than buy it for these years as a complete set can run you decent money in higher grade. I picked up on the numbering by accident as a lot of the cards I was missing were star or semi stars from the sets. And they all had similar numbering.

I know they did it and it's been mentioned before but I still don't know why they did it.

 

[tramers]

I think most of us at that time could name player and number from building sets . I know I made 10 plus sets of several years and still remember certain players numbers AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH .

 

[Hawk8]

Dawson got card number 500 in the 88 set after winning the 87 NL MVP