During NIHOF committee meetings, it was extremely rare for us to agree unanimously on anything. We were initially in agreement that Bruno Sammartino had to be considered the most deserving man not yet in the WWE Hall of Fame. Here we are, two years later, and Randy Savage has taken over the top slot, yet the sentiment remains the same: Bruno Sammartino SHOULD be in the WWE Hall of Fame.
How does a guy with a lifetime Batting Average of .250, who never received a single vote for the Hall, even make this list? It reminds us of a band that fails to earn any real respect, but, in retrospect, is viewed as ahead of its time by the generation that follows. The metaphor we are talking about is Jim Wynn, the man dubbed the “Toy Cannon”.
Jim Wynn played the bulk of his career for an awful (and barely noticed) Houston Astro team in the gigantic Astrodome. The stadium was far from a hitter’s paradise, yet Wynn managed to put up decent power numbers there. He never posted what would be considered a decent Batting Average, but Jim Wynn walked… a lot. Two times he led the league in free passes and always had an On Base Percentage well over 100 points higher than his Batting Average. He could also steal, and he was great in the field, not that anybody was watching him when he played in Houston.
Wynn would later have a couple of good seasons in L.A., but he went from a team that nobody saw to a loaded club where nobody paid attention to him. Jim Wynn could be the best player in the ’60s and 70’s that nobody ever saw.
How is it possible to hit .361 and hit 41 home runs without anyone noticing? The answer is to perform that incredible feat the same year that Roger Maris hit 61 Home Runs.
The 1961 season was easily the high-water mark for Norm Cash’s career, and it is sad that it went mostly unnoticed. Cash never had a season like that again, and though he was a very productive power hitter for the rest of his career, he still posted decent on-base percentages. ‘Stormin” Norm Cash was a fan favorite in Detroit for his fun loving antic and genuine love of life. He wasn’t thought of much outside of Detroit as the team was in the national shadow of Kaline, McLain, and Lolich, but this never seemed to be an issue to Cash.
Norm Cash may have been a good power hitter, but without remotely flirting with what he did in 1961, he has been reduced to a fun footnote rather than a legendary part of the game. It is interesting to think about how he would be remembered if he had posted those numbers in 1962 instead.