Cake or gum? 1976 Graig Nettles

Last time Topps rolled to a 9-3 win. Who will come out on top here?

Two shots of Graig Nettles in his home Yankees uniform in his home park, but neither are at Yankee Stadium. The Hostess photo is at Shea Stadium, the Yankees home park in '74 and '75, while Topps's photo was taken at spring training in Ft. Lauderdale.

Coincidentally this is my second Nettles post in a week, so I'll just copy and paste what I write for the '81 Topps post. Nettles has the highest WAR total of any third baseman not in the Hall of Fame, and the highest WAR total of any player with a batting average below .250. The six-time All Star was one of the big stars of the Yankee teams that won four pennants and two World Series between 1976 and 1981. He led the AL with 32 HR in 1976, and in 1977 had his best season, hitting .255 with 37 HR and 107 RBI. The Yankees traded him to the Padres before the 1984 season and helped San Diego win their first-ever pennant that year. In 2,700 major league games he hit .248 with 390 HR and 1,314 RBI. Nettles was also a terrific defender, with the most impressive highlight reel of postseason defensive gems since Brooks Robinson. Nettles was a scout and coach for a while but is now retired. He was known for his irreverent sense of humor - his autobiography was titled Balls.