#125 -- Dave Cash

Dave Cash










I always liked Dave Cash. He had a lot of style, as you can see in this card. He's got the wristbands, the hat's cocked just right and he's got just the hint of an arrogant sneer as he pretends to look at the pitcher that's going to throw him a pitch. I always think of him as a Pirate, although he had his best success with the Phillies.


Dave came up and got some playing time in 1970 filling in for Bill Mazeroski. In 1971 he played half-time at second and some at third, still getting over 500 at bats. However, Rennie Stennett was coming up and Cash had to split time with him.


In 1974 Cash was part of a straight up trade within the division to the Phillies for Ken Brett. It worked out for both teams, more so of the Phillies than the Pirates. Cash teamed up with Larry Bowa to anchor the middle infield and had over 200 hits twice (and 189 the other year).


Cash retired with the highest fielding percentage for a second baseman. For a time in the 1970's, he held the record for most at bats in a season, which means he led off, played every day, played for a team that scored a lot and he didn't walk. But he didn't strike out either. He's somebody that you'd think would have good speed, but wasn't a good base-stealer, stealing 120 and being caught 74 times, just over 60%, which wasn't good for a 1970's leadoff hitter.


I always thought Dave Cash was cool. I also saw that he was part of the 1st all-black starting 9 in the majors on September 1, 1971. It's probably happened a few times since.

1972 Feature
Nolan Ryan continued his assault on July 1, 1972, by striking out 16 A's in a 5-3 win. He gave up 3 runs on only 5 hits, but also walked 3, hit Sal Bando and Bill Voss in the 7th and threw his 9th wild pitch of the year.

The Game of the Day is going to be in Fenway. Going into the top of the 9th the Red Sox have a 5-3 lead, but the Brewers scored 2 in the 8th and have momentun. All of the Red Sox runs have come on home runs, two by Ben Oglivie and one by former Brewer pitcher Marty Pattin. Don Newhauser came in to relieve in the 9th and got a grounder to short. Since Luis Aparicio had not been hitting well, the Sox were trying out rookie Juan Beniquez at short. Beniquez had a much better bat, but was a woeful shortstop. In 1971 he played 15 games at short, made 6 errors and fielded .895. He was better in 1972. In 27 games he made 14 errors, but his fielding percentage improved to .900. It's hard to field under .900. Juan never played shortstop again until a 1 inning emergency for the Angels in 1985.

Anyway, an out and a walk later and the tying run is on base. The Sox bring Luis Tiant in to face Ron Theobald. We've seen Theobald's card. He's not menacing looking and he hit like he was borrowing Eddie Gaedel's bat. Theobald did make some solid contact on Tiant, however. He did the right thing and hit a grounder to Juan ".900" Beniquez, but Beniquez handled it cleanly and it turned into a 6-4-3 game-ending double play. Theobald hits it hard, but that turns it into a double play when Beniquez fields it cleanly. Sometimes guys go against what they would normally do.

#72 -- Bruce Kison

Bruce Kison

Kison was brought along by the Pirates in 1971 and was in and out of the rotation. That was the story of his career. He was the epitome of the swingman/5th starter in the 70's when most teams went with a 4 man rotation. He had a nice long career, mostly as a starter, but never pitched 200 innings in a year. That's not unsual now, but in the 70's, 300 innings was what 200 innings is now.

It seemed like I had a lot of this card when I was growing up. Either that or I had it out a lot because it's very familiar. I like the foul line running through the photo in this shot. I also like the fans along the rail down the left field line, hoping to get an autograph of Clemente or Stargell, but likely getting stuck with Gene Alley, Bob Johnson or Milt May.

Bruce also became well known for throwing inside. He plunked 11 in only 129 innings in 1974. Wow. Supposedly in his final year as a Red Sox in 1985 he threw at Jorge Bell. Bell came to the mound to fight and tried to throw a karate kick, missed because Kison stepped aside and laid him out. At least that's according to an internet report and we know those are always right.

Kison's probably most known for being the winning pitcher in the first night World Series game in 1971. He wasn't the starter, but relieved Luke Walker who had a rough first inning. Kison kept the Orioles off balance most of the rest of the way. That might be due in part to the fact that he hit three of them (a World Series record tied by Jose Contreras of the White Sox in 2005) so nobody wanted to dig in too deeply.

One of the most curious stats about Bruce was his hitting performance in 1978. He was a reasonably good hitter, but in 1978 he only had 4 hits: a single (10th inning of a tie game off Terry Forster), a double (September 1 off Mickey Mahler), a triple (September 7 off Pete Falcone) and a homer (September 29, last at bat of the year, off Steve Carlton). He had a "season cycle." I suppose, since they were in order, you could call this a natural season cycle. This doesn't happen often because it means you can't get more than 4 hits in a season. One other pitcher (Ray Poat in 1947) and three position players (Fred Manrique, 1985; Curtis Pride, 1993 and Matt Diaz, 2004) have "accomplished" this feat. Most players -- even pitchers -- prefer to have more than 4 hits in a season.

Bruce was also late for his wedding on October 17, 1971. It took a police escort, a Lear jet and a helicopter to get him and his best man, Bob Moose, there close to time. It almost seems a cliche from a teen movie, but Bruce and Bob showed up reeking of alcohol. However, this was one time that I don't think the bride or future in-laws were upset. You see, Bruce and Bob had to cut short their celebration of a Game 7 World Series win over the Orioles to get there. This story from Sports Illustrated is pretty cool.

#60 -- Manny Sanguillen

Manny Sanguillen

Manny Sanguillen was one of the most fun guys playing ball in the early 70's. You could tell he loved what he did because he almost always had a smile on his face and was as chatty as any catcher around. He was a good hitting catcher and came to field his position OK. He's got 2 World Series rings and was a force in 1971. If it weren't for Roberto Clemente completely taking over that Series, Manny could have been the MVP because he hit .379. He went 1-2 in the 1972 All-Star Game (grounding out against Gaylord Perry and singling off Wilbur Wood).

One thing Manny didn't do was walk. Jeff Francouer and Vlad Guerrero could aspire to be as big of a free-swinger as Manny was. He had 6 straight seasons (1969-1974) where he had over 475 plate appearances and his highest walk total was 21. Still, his OPS+ never dipped below 94. If he'd had a little more discipline his stats would look better today, but in his day, Manny was thought of, along with Johnny Bench, as an elite catcher in the NL.

After the 1972 season, Manny had some tough times. He was great friends with Roberto Clemente. He didn't go to Clemente's funeral after the plane crash. Why? He refused to believe his friend was dead and he spent that time diving in the area of the crash looking for Clemente. The Pirates had a tough choice to make in 1973 with who was going to fill the huge void in right field. Since Manny had good speed and a rocket arm, they tried him. It didn't work and by July Richie Zisk and Dave Parker started getting time there and Manny went back behind the plate.

Manny was also part of a strange trade. Danny Murtaugh stepped down (again) after the 1976 season. In November Manny was traded to the A's for manager Chuck Tanner. It worked out well for the Pirates because Tanner led them to another World Series win over the Orioles in 1979. Manny played 1 year in Oakland and was traded back to the Pirates. By that time, he was a pinch-hitter, but he was also an excellent clubhouse guy. When Tony Armas, Jr. went to spring training with the Pirates a year or two ago, the first person he sought out was Manny Sanguillen. Why? His father made his big league debut with the Pirates and when the rest of the team was hazing him a little too hard, Manny took him under his wing and he never forgot that.

Manny now has a barbecue joint in PNC Park, kind of like Boog Powell in Baltimore and Greg Luzinski in Philadelphia. I know if I ever get to go to PNC I'll be finding his spot and having that for dinner. Manny just seems like one of those guys that if you get to spend 5 minutes with him, your day is going to go better. Just look at this guy! Buy another sandwich from him, will you?!?

#27 -- Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson




Bob's another guy that lost an entire year to military service. He was cruising before leaving and struggled a little coming back, but rebounded well. His numbers look better than his win-loss record for the Royals. Believe it or not, Bob was responsible for building the Royals. He was in the trade that brought Amos Otis to the Royals from the Mets and the Pirates gave up Freddie Patek to get him. Those were two cornerstones of the Royals in the '70's.

It's kind of neat to see all the guys hanging around behind him. I wonder if they're making fun of his bent-over, finishing up the fake pitch pose? Bob was 6-4 and 220, which was a big guy back then, so if anyone was poking fun at him, I'll bet little Jose Pagan wasn't one of them.

That 1971 playoff game on the back of Bob's card was a big deal. The LCS (best of 5) was tied 1-1 and the Giants were going with Juan Marichal. Marichal shut the Pirates down on 4 hits, only allowing solo homers to Richie Hebner and Bob Robertson. Bob had to be better and he was, scattering 5 hits and allowing only an unearned run over 8 innings. The Pirates won that game to go up 2-1 and then closed it out in Game 4. Bob wasn't so strong in the Series against the Orioles. He started and lost Game 2, getting knocked out in the 4th.

There were 4 Bob Johnsons to have played in the big leagues. This Bob wasn't the best, but he's the only one with a World Series ring.

#1 -- Pirates Team Card

1972 Pittsburgh Pirates

For a few years Card #1 belonged to the previous year’s World Series Winners. The Pirates beat the Orioles in 1971 in a 7 game thriller. This was the first Series I remember watching. It's funny, but I only have 2 clear memories of it. One was Frank Robinson sliding into home under Manny Sanguillen as Manny was jumping to get a high throw. The other was Roberto Clemente, particularly his throw from the right field wall to home. That guy was amazing, but more on him later. This card looks to be the unusual team picture that was taken after the gates had opened and fans were milling around in the background.

I usually remember The Lumber Company with guys like Stargell, Clemente, Sanguillen, Oliver and Hebner, but you should also remember they didn’t have a regular shortstop (Gene Alley and Jackie Hernandez) or second baseman (Dave Cash and Rennie Stennett on their way up and Mazeroski on his way out), one outfielder was a platoon between Vic Davalillo and Gene Clines and their pitching staff was good, but not one that was able to consistently lock a team down. However they had a good righty-lefty bullpen combination with Dave Guisti and Ramon Hernandez shutting down the end of the game.

Bill Virdon took over managing the team in 1972 from Danny Murtaugh. Murtaugh ended up coming back when the Pirates were disenchanted with Virdon. Virdon went on to become the first manager fired by George Steinbrenner, but he was amazing with the Astros in 1980. The Pirates had 3 future Hall of Famers on this team (Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski). Clemente was the only Gold Glove winner. Stargell started the All-Star Game in left field and the Pirates were also represented by Clemente, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillen and Al Oliver. The Pirates won the NL East by 11 games over the Cubs and met the Reds in the NLCS. They were 3 outs away from a second consecutive World Series, but that belonged to the Reds.

There were a few teams from 1972 that I would play when I'd get in the vacant lot next door. The Cardinals were my favorite team, so they always played. The Reds played a lot as did the A's and Orioles. The Pirates were usually in the mix. I saw those teams play a lot on the Game of the Week and knew their lineups forwards and backwards.

1972 Feature

1972 was one of those years that had a lot going on. As a leap year, it had Summer and Winter Olympics and a Presidential election. We were at war in Vietnam and involved in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. There was violence and bombings between England and Ireland. We were still sending men to the moon. Hippies were still demonstrating on college campuses. Chess became a big deal. Baseball only had one nationally televised game a week and no designated hitter. ABC's Wide World of Sports was a must watch each week. A miracle occurred in Pittsburgh. Finally, an earthquake in Nicaragua led to an international outpouring of aid.

As we go through this blog, we'll visit some of these events in detail and a few more.