Friday, May 11, 2018

194 Fred Norman


Good things come for those who wait….a long yet uneven career but made good by  perseverance …in and out of different levels of minors for 10 seasons with MLB trials…even in minors rarely stayed with one team…. doesn’t win first game until 1970  nine seasons after his MLB debut in 1962….salvation to regular rotation comes in the form help wanted sign posted by San Diego….Norman posts a lopsided 3-12 record but his 3.34 shows impressive pitching skills and bad luck via poor run support (the Padres run production dropped by nearly a total of 200 runs from previous season)….able to win more(9) in 1972 and establishes himself as a workhorse who can go deep into games possibly (6 times) shutting out the competition as his only way to win …. 1973 starts rough with 1-7 mark…traded/sold to Reds where he is able to stable the season with an overall 13-13 slate….what follows is 6 years of double figure wins contributing to perennial Red pennant drives….consistent with little variability in ERA with 11-14 wins….1980 signed as a free by Montreal where spends his last year mostly in the bullpen in a season that confrontational and anticlimactic…lesson learned; you win when on a good team. 

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