Norman Dalton Cash (November 10, 1933 – October 11, 1986) was an American Major League Baseball first baseman who spent almost his entire career with the Detroit Tigers. A power hitter, his 377 career home runs were the fourth most by an American League left-handed hitter when he retired, behind Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig; his 373 home runs with the Tigers is tied for second in franchise history with Miguel Cabrera, behind Al Kaline (399). He also led the AL in assists three times and fielding percentage twice; he ranked among the all-time leaders in assists (4th with 1,317) and double plays (10th with 1,347) upon his retirement, and was fifth in AL history in games at first base (1,943). He was known to fans and teammates during his playing days as "Stormin' Norman."
Early life
Cash was born in Justiceburg, Garza County, Texas, and attended (what was then) Sul Ross State Teachers College, where he was All-Lone Star Conference in football as well as playing baseball; he was drafted by the Chicago Bears as a running back in 1955, but declined to play pro football.
MLB career
Early career
After signing with the Chicago White Sox in 1955, he spent 1957 in the military and made his debut with the team in , seeing limited play as an outfielder and pinch hitter. He appeared in 58 games for the AL pennant-winners; the August 25 acquisition of Ted Kluszewski left him on the White Sox bench. He was hitless in four pinch-hitting appearances in the World Series. In December of that year, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in an eight-player deal that brought Minnie Miñoso back to Chicago,) His 1961 statistics turned out to be career highs which he did not come close to approaching again — in later years, he never reached 100 runs or 100 RBI, and never batted above .283. His 118-point drop to a .243 average in was the largest ever by a batting champion.
Cash later said of the 1961 season: "It was a freak. Even at the time, I realized that. Everything I hit seemed to drop in, even when I didn't make good contact. I never thought I'd do it again." Cash popped out using a regulation bat to end the game. [http://mlb.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070612&content_id=2021545&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb]
Teammate Jim Northrup told the story as follows: "In his last at-bat, Norm walked up to the plate with a table leg from the locker room. The plate umpire, Ron Luciano, says, `You can't use that up here.' Cash says, `Why not, I won't hit him anyway.' He then gets a bat, then hit a popup to shortstop to end the game. As he was walking away he says to Luciano, `See, I told ya.'"
"When you mention Norm Cash, I just smile", said Al Kaline, who had a locker adjacent to Cash's for years. "He was just a fun guy to be around and a great teammate. He always came ready to play."
Career statistics
Cash was a career .271 hitter with 377 home runs, 1104 RBI, 1046 runs, 1820 hits, 241 doubles, 41 triples, 43 stolen bases, a .374 on-base percentage, and a .488 slugging average in 2089 games. He holds Tigers career defensive records at first base in games (1912), putouts (14,926), assists (1303), and double plays (1328), having broken the marks set by Hank Greenberg and Rudy York. He had a .992 fielding percentage at first base in his career. Cash is one of eight players in Tigers history (with Sam Crawford, Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer, Al Kaline, Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell and Miguel Cabrera) to have played at least 2,000 regular season games with the team.
Cash summed up his success as follows: "I owe my success to expansion pitching, a short right-field fence, and my hollow bats." Later in his career, Cash claimed he used a corked bat in 1961, even showing Sports Illustrated how he made one.
Caribbean baseball
In between, Cash played winter ball with the Indios de Oriente club of the Venezuelan League during the 1958–59 season. As the league champions, the Indios represented Venezuela in the 1959 Caribbean Series, as Cash posted a .360 average (9-for-25) and led the tournament in home runs (2), RBI (11) and slugging (.680), while driving in six runs in a game — also a Series record — and earning MVP honors.
Later life
After retiring from baseball, Cash signed with the Detroit Caesars, a professional softball team, and played two seasons (1977–1978). The Caesars played in the American Professional Slow Pitch Softball League (APSPL), winning league titles in both seasons with Cash. The team was owned by Mike Ilitch, who would later become the owner of the Detroit Tigers. The Caesars had extensive talent from the amateur softball leagues, and both Cash and fellow former Tiger Jim Northrup played part-time and promotional roles.
Cash was a color commentator for ABC's Monday Night Baseball in 1976, and for Tiger telecasts on ON-TV subscription television from 1980 to 1982.
In October 1986, Cash drowned in an accident off Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan when he slipped off a dock and struck his head. His body was discovered about 11:00am in of water at Beaver Island. An autopsy later revealed that Cash had a blood alcohol content of 0.18 percent at the time of his death. He is buried in Pine Lake Cemetery, West Bloomfield, Michigan.
On April 23, 2005, the high school and Little League baseball field in Post, Texas were dedicated to Cash. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
- List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions