Dave Bergman, member of 1984 Detroit Tigers, dies at 61

Dave Bergman, member of 1984 Detroit Tigers, dies at 61

He was a mediocre player, but a curiosity. His major league career spanned 18 years, but in all that time he had only 289 plate appearances against lefty pitchers, making him one of the most extreme platoon players in history (more than 90% of his plate appearances were against right handers). I don't know if anyone ever had a longer career as a back-up player.

Oddly enough, he began his career as a minor league batting champion by hitting .348 for Oneonta in the Yankee farm system. The Yankees brought him up the next year (1975), and he proceeded to hit a nice round zero (0 for 17) in the bigs, thus earning him another stint in the minors, where he again hit quite well, but was shipped off by the Bronx Bombers to the Astros.

After kicking around the NL for some years, he finally found his home with the AL Tigers, where he lasted nine years and was actually a solid platoon contributor to the great 1984 world championship squad, with more than 300 plate appearances (almost all against righties, as usual).