Funeral services were held for former Detroit...

Funeral services were held for former Detroit Tigers slugger Norm Cash, the 1961 American League batting champion, who was remembered warmly by Al Kaline and other ex-Tigers as a man who never allowed his teammates to take themselves too seriously.

Cash, 51, drowned Sunday in Lake Michigan.

“He lockered next to me for the last 10 or 12 years we played, and . . . that was an experience in itself.” Kaline said at the funeral in Orchard Lake, Mich.

“He had the messiest locker of anybody I ever saw. People were always sending him gifts. He had a bat with three holes drilled in it, a table leg, props, a pair of glasses with windshield wipers on them. . . . One time it was raining and we were getting beat badly. Norm put on the glasses with the wipers and wore them to home plate, hoping to convince the umpire to call the game.”