Dave Bergman obit

'Sad day': 1984 Tiger Dave Bergman dies at 61

Bergman played first base, outfield for Tigers from 1984-92, won World Series in '84

 

He was not on the list.

Of all the on-field memories Dave Bergman shared, and all the off-field contributions he made to the game of baseball and its youth over the years, the former Tigers first baseman will be most remembered for this scene.

June 4, 1984. ABC's "Monday Night Baseball." Tiger Stadium.

The Blue Jays, just a handful of games behind the Tigers in the American League East standings, were one strike away from escaping the bottom of the 10th inning in a tie game, in front of a packed crowd on national television.

"I remember it well," Alan Trammell said.

"I don't think anybody that followed us back then will forget that," Lance Parrish said.

And pitch after pitch after pitch — Bergman fell behind no balls and two strikes to Blue Jays reliever Roy Lee Jackson — that third strike never came.

"He fouled off 10 or 12 pitches," Parrish recalled.

And on the 13th, Bergman hit his first home run as a Tiger — a walk-off, three-run home run into the rightfield upper deck for a 6-3 win — a shot that is forever etched in team lore as one of the most memorable in the team's most recent World Series championship campaign.

"That was Dave Bergman's moment," Trammell said. "It was just one of those magical moments that was so fitting for our team."

Bergman, the unsung hero of that 1984 team, died Monday after a three-year battle with bile duct cancer. He was 61.

"I loved Dave Bergman," Parrish said. "Everybody on the team loved him. He was a great friend and a great teammate.

It's just a sad day. We know this battle has taken every ounce of strength and energy to fight. It's sad to see it turn out this way."

Bergman played nine seasons in Detroit — 1984-92 — and was a lifetime .258 hitter in 17 big-league seasons with the Yankees, Astros, Giants and Tigers.

He is most known for that 1984 season, when he hit .273 with seven home runs and 44 RBIs after joining the team as a little-known player in a three-team trade with the Phillies and Giants that spring.

"I'll be honest with you," former Tiger Tom Brookens recalled before the team's 30th anniversary celebration last summer. "When we traded (John) Wockenfuss and Glenn Wilson in the spring for a guy named Willie Hernandez and Dave Bergman, I thought, 'What the hell is going on here?'"

On the field, Bergman is remembered as the consummate professional.

"He was a leader," Parrish said. "A very intelligent man who played the game the way it is supposed to be played. He played very hard, and I just loved being on the field with him."

And off the field, he is remembered for his charitable contributions and philanthropic endeavors within the Detroit community.

"He was a class act," longtime friend and co-worker Robert Bilkie said. "A true professional. He was giving in his ways and he served the kids. Anybody that needed him, he'd go out of his way to help."

Bergman played a large role with the C.A.T.C.H. organization — a charity for kids founded by former manager Sparky Anderson — and youth baseball around the area, most notably the Grosse Pointe Redbirds youth baseball club, which he founded.

Bergman, a former partner and portfolio manager for Sigma Investment Counselors in Southfield, also was a board member of the Joe Niekro Foundation, which supports research and awareness for brain aneurysms. Niekro was a teammate of Bergman's with the Astros, and his best friend.

Trammell last saw Bergman on Jan. 24 at his home in Grosse Pointe Woods and although his health had taken a turn for the worse, "He sounded the same," Trammell said, especially when talking about Niekro's foundation.

"It just put a smile to my face to hear him talk about something so dear to his heart," he said.

Bergman had been doing some fundraising for the foundation and was planning an event in Detroit this summer.

"We're going to do it," he said. "Put it on your calendar.

Trammell said: "Even though he was going through this and he was dying, his mind-set was still to help his old buddy Joe Niekro and that just tells you a little bit in a nutshell the kind of person Dave Bergman is."

Bergman was drafted by the Yankees in the second round of the 1974 MLB draft.

He is survived by his wife, Cathy, and children, Troy, Bria and Erika.

Funeral arrangements have not been finalized and the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Joe Niekro Foundation and Grosse Pointe Redbirds baseball organization.

"It is with heavy hearts we extend our condolences to the family of Dave Bergman," the Tigers said in a release Monday. "Dave was as spirited a person as he was a player. He will forever hold a special place in Tigers history for the versatile roles he played and his significant contributions as a member of the 1984 World Champion Tigers."

And none more so than that at-bat on a Monday night in extra innings, with Al Michaels, Howard Cosell and Earl Weaver on the call.

Anderson called it "the greatest at-bat in baseball history."

"It was getting near midnight," Bergman said. "Somebody had to get a hit."

So he did.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, Bergman was an alumnus of Maine South High School and Illinois State University. In 1973 and 1974, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and won the league batting title in 1973. His uniform number 12 was retired at Illinois State in 1994.

Bergman was drafted by the Chicago Cubs out of high school, but opted to pursue a college degree rather than sign with his favorite team. At Illinois State, he was voted the team MVP in 1973 and 1974. In 1974, he was named an All-American outfielder by The Sporting News. He ended his college career with a .366 batting average and 63 runs batted in.

Drafted by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 1974 Major League Baseball draft, Bergman was a batting champion and league MVP in each of his first two minor league seasons, first with the New York–Penn League in 1974 and then with the Eastern League in 1975. He played in only 12 games with the Yankees between 1975 and 1977, before being traded to the Houston Astros in December 1977. In four years with the Astros from 1978–1981, Bergman was a part-time player who never had more than 186 at bats or one home run in a season. In the 1980 National League West tie-breaker game, Bergman, in place of Art Howe at first base, recorded the final out of the game when he fielded a liner by himself that clinched the 7-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers that gave the Astros their first division title.

He was signed by Yankees scout Lou Maguolo.

Bergman, along with Jeffrey Leonard, was traded from the Houston Astros to the San Francisco Giants for Mike Ivie on April 20, 1981. In 1983, Bergman appeared in 90 games for the Giants and hit six home runs with a .286 batting average.

On March 24, 1984, Bergman was traded twice; from the Giants to the Phillies, then from the Phillies to the Tigers. Bergman was the starting first baseman for the Detroit Tigers team that defeated the San Diego Padres in the 1984 World Series. He appeared in 120 games for the 1984 Tigers and had a career-high 44 RBIs and seven home runs.

On June 4, 1984, Bergman came to bat in the bottom of the 10th inning with two men on base and two outs in a game against the second-place Toronto Blue Jays, who at that time trailed the Tigers by five games. Bergman fouled off seven pitches, and on a full count hit the 13th pitch of the at bat into the upper deck at Tiger Stadium for a walk-off, three-run home run. In his season-long diary that became the book Bless You Boys, Detroit manager, Sparky Anderson, wrote, "Tonight I saw the greatest at bat in my life...Bergie fouled off seven pitches and then picked one practically off the ground and drilled it into the upper deck in right. What a battle! Bergie was up there a full seven minutes."

He hit a career high .294 for the Tigers in 1988, and in August 1989, he broke up a Nolan Ryan no-hitter with a one-out single in the ninth inning. On August 5, 1989, Bergman recorded a putout of Chicago White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillén using the hidden ball trick.

Bergman played nine seasons for the Tigers, with most of his time spent as a left-handed batting platoon or reserve player. During his last seasons, he backed up Cecil Fielder at first base while also seeing time at designated hitter.