Did Topps baseball card company hate the Tigers?

[motownphilly]

After about 10 years, I decided to get a Becketts and start going through my mountains of worthless (thanks to overproduction) late 70's through late 80's baseball cards.

I noticed some trends in numbering... Nolan Ryan had the most #1 cards. Stars usually got the first century numbers...Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Pete Rose...would get #300, #400, #500... The Tigers checklists and manager cards were #666.

Yup, #666 in 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984...what gives?:ogre:

[IdahoBert]

Syrett4 would know about this, probably.

[syrett4]

Wow, never noticed that before. Although an argument could be made also based on their player selection over the last several years.

I doubt it was a planned thing. Even at that time, when Donruss and Fleer were coming on board, Topps still dominated the market and probably just got lazy.

However one never knows.......

[The Ronz]

Supposedly, the # 666 card is given to the player or team that knocks the Yankees out of the play-offs. Given that the Tigers were a very competitive team for the years listed, the theory, except for 1981, does hold water. Also, the Topps company is based in New York.

:alien:

[syrett4]

Looks like it started in 1980 with the Al Greene/Bruce Robbins rookie.

I found an article that supports Ronz

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/011876.php

I also googled 666 topps yankees and found more articles to support this. Very cool.

[hoosierdaddy]

That link just showed up like a Yankees uniform on my screen. :( Interesting subject though...666? lol

[diaspora04]

The Topps company is looking for a general counsel - perhaps Ron Burgandy might be interested.

http://jobs.acca.com/jobdetail.cfm?job=2352882&keywords=&ref=1

[motownphilly]

Great stuff guys...I knew if I posted this here...someone would know the answer.

Wow, I'd be amazed if the Tigers were the reason the Yanks were knocked out in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983...

I almost buy the lazy argument. Maybe year after year, they reserved specific numbers for things and kept up with that convension. I'll have to look closer and see if other teams also held on to their numbers during these years.