Monday, April 9, 2012

#35 - Graig Nettles


What a card: This is Graig Nettles' first base Topps card as a San Diego Padre. He's featured with the Padres in the 1984 Topps Traded set.

My observation on the front: Nettles is displaying the "RAK" memorial on his sleeve, which was for late McDonald's founder and Padres owner Ray Kroc. Kroc died in January 1984.

More opinion from me: It was very strange seeing Nettles in anything other than a Yankee uniform back then. I know he played for the Twins and Indians before he came to the Yankees, but that was before I knew anything about baseball. As far as I was concerned, he was always a Yankee.

Something you might know: Nettles earned a trade to the Padres after Yankees owner George Steinbrenner didn't take kindly to criticism of him in Nettles' newly released book "Balls."

Something you might not know: Nettles is mentioned at the end of Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" video. This is appropriate because "Glory Days" was released in 1985.


My observation on the back: It always surprises me that Nettles' brother played in the majors until 1981. I had no knowledge of Jim Nettles when I watched baseball as a kid between 1975-81. Of course, that's because he played in the majors after 1974 only in 1979 (11 games with Kansas City) and 1981 (1 game with Oakland).

The blog wants to speak now: All of the tabs (except for the pop culture tab) have been rearranged so the most recent information is listed first.

4 comments:

jacobmrley said...

Nit Picking time! Ray Kroc did not found McDonalds, the McDonald brothers did. Kroc bought them out and made it a gigantic fast food juggernaut. Slight, but important difference.

night owl said...

OK. Fast-food historian.

MCT said...

"It was very strange seeing Nettles in anything other than a Yankee uniform back then. I know he played for the Twins and Indians before he came to the Yankees, but that was before I knew anything about baseball. As far as I was concerned, he was always a Yankee."

Pretty much my exact thoughts upon seeing the picture of the card at the top of the post.

Unknown said...

Look at all those seasons in the .230's-.250's with batting averages. Yikes. Surprised me a bit.