Next
in line for a 1975 “in-action” card in my long-running set is former
All-Star second baseman Dave Cash of the Philadelphia Phillies, who goes
unnoticed these days but had a wonderful run in the middle of the
decade:
Cash, who played the first five years of his Big League career with the
Pittsburgh Pirates, came over to the “City of Brotherly Love” in October
of 1973 in a trade for pitcher Ken Brett, and did not disappoint the
Phillie faithful, having his three best years as a Major Leaguer between
1974-1976.
In those three seasons Cash averaged over 200 hits a season, along with a
.300 average while playing pretty much every single game, even setting
the MLB record (since broken) of 699 at-bats during the 1975 season.
He’d sign with the Montreal Expos in the Winter of 1976 as a Free Agent,
and would have one more very good year in 1977 before quickly having
his career turn South.
After an injury-plagued 1979 season he found himself with the San Diego
padres in 1980, where he hit .227 over 130 games, before retiring at
only 32 years of age.
All told, Cash finished with a very nice .283 career average, with 1571
hits over 5554 at-bats and 1422 games between 1969 and 1980, stealing
120 bases and scoring 732 runs.