Norm Cash had the greatest season of his career in 1961, but it was completely overshadowed
by
Roger Maris's 61 HR. Cash led the AL with 193 hits and a .361 batting average,
37 points ahead of the runner-up, teammate
Al Kaline (they were only the eighth pair
of AL teammates to finish one-two in a batting race). Only 12 players have topped
his .488 on-base percentage that year, and none since. He had 132 RBI (fourth in
the AL), 41 HR (sixth), eight triples (fourth), 119 runs (fourth), 11 stolen bases,
124 walks (second), a .662 slugging percentage (second, ahead of Maris), and 354
total bases (second). He finished fourth in the MVP voting, behind Maris, Mickey
Mantle, and
Jim Gentile.
Ironically, the season that was overlooked at the time
was the apex of his career. All the performances cited were career highs. He dropped
to .243 in 1962 and the 118-point
drop is a record for a batting champ. Even on his
own team, he was overshadowed by his roommate, Al Kaline. But although he never hit
above .283 for the rest of his career, he was consistently one of the best first
basemen in the majors. He hit 30 or more homers five times and 20 or more eleven
times, including nine straight years (1961-69), and twice led the league in HR percentage
(1965, 1971). He won TSN Comeback Player of the Year honors in 1965, finishing second in the AL in HR (30) and third in slugging (.512), then won the award
again in 1971 when he hit 32 HR and slugged .531.Cash never went on the DL, although
some years he missed 20-40 games with minor injuries. His batting averages were actually
well above average in the pitching-dominated late 1960s, and he walked frequently.
Cash was a good fielder and at various times led the AL in putouts (1961), fielding
average (1964, 1967), and assists (tied 1965, led 1966-67).
Cash was drafted in
the 13th round by the NFL's Chicago Bears but he opted for baseball, beginning his
career as an outfielder in the White Sox system. After missing 1957 for military
service he made it to the majors briefly in 1958. He converted to first base and
spent all of 1959 in the majors, although he played just 58 games in Chicago's AL
championship season. In the off-season he was sent to Cleveland in the deal that
brought Minnie Minoso back to Chicago, and then was picked up by Detroit in the most
lopsided deal in their history: he was traded straight up for third baseman Steve
Demeter, who had just five more at-bats in his ML career.
The genial, self-deprecating
slugger tied two offbeat records. On June 27, 1963, he had no fielding chances at
first base. And in the third inning of Game Six of the 1968 World Series, he had
two hits as the Tigers scored 10 runs. He batted .385 for the Series, with five RBI
and five runs, and hit a homer in Game Two. He also started the Series-winning rally
in Game Seven with a two-out, seventh-inning single, and scored the first run of
the game on Jim Northrup's triple. In the 1972 LCS, Cash was part of the Tigers'
"Over the Hill Gang". He homered in Game One in a losing cause and drove in the tying
run of Game Four with a 10th-inning walk as the Tigers came from behind to force
a fifth game.
Cash's 375 HR as a first baseman rank third in the AL, and his 377
HR overall were 30th all-time at the end of the 1980s. He and Kaline combined to
hit 647 HR as teammates, the fourth-best AL total and eighth-best overall. His total
of 317 hits and walks in 1961 is the 23rd-best in ML history; only seven people have
bettered it, and only Wade Boggs has done it since Cash. He is seventh in lifetime
assists among first basemen (1317) despite not being in the top ten in games at first
base. Cash drowned in 1986 when he slipped on a boat, fell, and struck his head.
(SH)
Norm Cash
