Sy Berger

Sy Berger was an employee of the Topps company for over 50 years. He is credited as being the co-designer of the 1952 Topps baseball series.

Topps

Berger's first day at Topps was also the first day that Topps began to produce Bazooka Gum.[1] In the autumn of 1951, Berger, then a 28-year-old veteran of World War II, designed the 1952 Topps baseball card set with Woody Gelman on the kitchen table of his apartment on Alabama Avenue in Brooklyn.[2] The card design included a player's name, photo, facsimile autograph, team name and logo on the front; and the player's height, weight, bats, throws, birthplace, birthday, stats, and a short biography on the back. The basic design is still in use today. Berger would work for Topps for 50 years (1947–97) and serve as a consultant for another five, becoming a well-known figure on the baseball scene, and the face of Topps to major league baseball players, whom he signed up annually[3] and paid in merchandise, like refrigerators and carpeting.

In later years, Berger had the equivalent of three garbage trucks full of 1952 Topps baseball cards loaded onto a barge. The barge was tugged a few miles, and the cards were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.[4]

References

  1. ^ Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, p. 94, Dave Jamieson, 2010, Atlantic Monthly Press, imprint of Grove/Atlantic Inc., New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-8021-1939-1
  2. ^ Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, p. 90, Dave Jamieson, 2010, Atlantic Monthly Press, imprint of Grove/Atlantic Inc., New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-8021-1939-1
  3. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124485/index.htm
  4. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021438/index.htm
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