NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "STORMIN' NORMAN" CASH

The next “nickname” profiled in my long running “Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread is former Detroit Tigers slugger Norm Cash, aka “Stormin’ Norman”, who had himself a wonderful 17-year Major League career:

Cash of course is generally remembered for that incredible 1961 season when he led the American League in batting with a .361 figure, along with an incredible .487 on-base-percentage.
Sadly for him however, ho goes and has such a season the very same year a couple of guys from the Bronx, Maris and Mantle, have a “chase to 61”, leading to Maris taking home the MVP with Mantle not far behind.
Throw in a career year for Baltimore Orioles slugger Jim Gentile, and you have Cash ending up fourth in that season’s MVP race.
Incredibly, in Cash’s 17-year career, he never even reached a .300 batting average in any one season again! As a matter of fact if we’re looking at full seasons, the next highest average he reached was .283 in 1971, when he had his last great year, hitting 32 homers and driving in 91 for Detroit.
Overall, by the time he retired after the 1974 season, Cash finished with a .271 average, with 377 homers and 1104 runs batted in, with four All-Star nods.
Five times he topped 30 home runs, while driving in over 80-runs six times while scoring over 80 four times during what many consider a “pitcher’s era”.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 BOBBY FENWICK

Today we have a “not so missing” 1974 card for former infielder Bobby Fenwick, who played two seasons in the Major Leagues, the final one with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973:

Fenwick appeared in five games for St. Louis after coming over in a trade on November 28th of 1972 with Ray Busse for Skip Jutze and Milt Ramirez.
He collected a single and an RBI over six plate appearances, striking out twice while playing three games at second base.
He made his Big League debut the season before with the Houston Astros, appearing in 36 games and hitting .180 with nine hits in 50 at-bats while playing all the infield positions but first base.
After spending all of 1974 in the San Diego Padres Minor League system he called it a career and retired, finishing up with a .179 career average with 10 hits over 56 at-bats, with seven runs scored and five RBIs.

NO-HITTERS SPECIAL SUB-SET: BILL SINGER, JULY 20TH 1970

The next No-Hitter profiled as we march through the 1970’s is the gem spun by former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bill Singer on July 20th of 1970 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium:

Singer had a beauty of a game, striking out 10 batter without issuing a walk, though he did commit two errors and hit right-fielder Oscar Gamble with a pitch, preventing the perfect game.
A young Dodger “right-fielder” who would go on to much greater success in the infield, Bill Russell, drove in two runs, along with one RBI each from Willie Davis, Wes Parker and Jim Lefebvre, leading Los Abgeles to a 5-0 win.
Philly starter Woodie Fryman took the loss, throwing 4.2 innings and giving up all five runs before Lowell Palmer came in to pitch the final 3.1 innings, all scoreless with only one hit.
For Singer, it improved his record to 7-3 with a nifty 2.90 earned run average, while the loss dropped Fryman to 6-6 on the season.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1978 ORLANDO RAMIREZ

Up on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1978 card for former California Angels shortstop Orlando Ramirez, for whom I’ve created cards for before:

Ramirez appeared in 25 games for the Angels during the 1977 season, batting .077 with a single hit in 13 at-bats, with six runs scored and a stolen base.
It was pretty much the norm for him in all his five-years as a Big League player, all of which were with the Angels.
Pretty much averaging about 30 games a season, Ramirez filled in at short while hitting around the “Mendoza Line”, with a high of .240 in 1975.
After a year in the Minors in 1978, he made it back to the Majors in 1979 for 13 games, which would be the last of his MLB career before going to play in the Mexican League for three years before retiring for good after the 1982 season.
All told, he played in 143 games in the Big Leagues, batting .189 with 53 hits over 281 at-bats with 24 runs scored and 16 runs batted in.

1975 IN-ACTION: BOBBY GRICH

Time to go and add Gold Glove second baseman Bobby Grich of the Baltimore Orioles to my on-going 1975 “In-Action” series:

Grich was on his way to a third straight Gold Glove when the 1975 season opened up, as well as coming off a second trip to the All-Star game in 1974.
He would win four Gold Gloves overall in his excellent 17-year career, while getting named to six All-Star teams and participating in five American League Championship Series, two with the Orioles and three with the California Angels.
Defensively he topped the league in assists three times, putouts four times and fielding percentage twice, generally considered one of the best fielding second baseman of his era.
I always felt his 1979 season was lost in the shuffle of some great years put in by the likes of Don Baylor, Fred Lynn and George Brett when he hit a career high 30 home runs with 101 RBIs to go with a .294 average, fantastic numbers for a second baseman in that era outside of a guy named Joe Morgan.
Two years later he’d be one of four players tied to lead the American League in homers with 22, while also topping the league in slugging (.543).
By the time he retired after the 1986 season he finished with a .266 career average with 1833 hits and 224 homers, with 864 runs batted in and 1033 runs scored.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION-1975 TOM LUNDSTEDT

Here's a "not so missing" 1975 card for former Chicago Cubs catcher Tom Lundstedt, who appeared in 22 games in 1974:

Lundstedt, who originally came up for his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1973 when he appeared in four games as a late-season call-up, collected the first three hits of his career in 1974, spread out over 32 at-bats for an average of .094.

Over the off-season he'd be traded to the Minnesota Twins for Mike Adams, and he'd go on to appear in 18 games, batting .107 with another three hits, this time over 28 at-bats, with two runs scored and an RBI while filling in behind the plate.

Turns out it'd be the last of his playing days, Majors OR even Minors, as I cannot find any other playing time for him according to Baseball_Reference after that 1975 activity.

Nevertheless, in his brief three year Major League career, Lundstedt played in 44 games, batting .092 with six hits in 65 at-bats, scoring three runs and driving in one.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 MIKE RAMSEY

Today we have a "not so missing" 1979 card for seven-year Major League infielder Mike Ramsey, who played the first dozen games of his career in 1978:

Ramsey came up as a September call-up in 1978, going 1-for-5 at the plate while scoring four runs with some time at shortstop for the Cardinals.

He'd end up spending all of 1979 in the Minors, but was up for good in 1980, going on to play the next four and a half seasons with St. Louis, including 1982 when the they went on to  World Championship.

As a matter of fact 1982 saw Ramsey get the most playing time in any one season of his career, appearing in 112 games for the Redbirds, batting .230 with 59 hits over 256 at-bats with 21 runs batted in, all career highs.

In 1984 he was traded over to the Montreal Expos for Chris Speier, in mid-season, appearing in 37 games for the Canadian team before signing as a Free Agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1985, where he'd end up playing the last nine games of his career.

All together, Ramsey hit .240 for his Big League tenure, collecting 189 hits over 786 at-bats in 394 games, while generally playing the all infield positions but first base.