About Graig Nettles
Graig Nettles (born August 20, 1944), nicknamed "Puff", is an American former Major League Baseball third baseman. During a 22-year baseball career, he played for the Minnesota Twins (1967–1969), Cleveland Indians (1970–1972), New York Yankees (1973–1983), San Diego Padres (1984–1986), Atlanta Braves (1987), and Montreal Expos (1988). Nettles is regarded as one of the best defensive third basemen of all time, winning Gold Glove Awards in 1977 and 1978. Despite his relatively low career batting average, he was a clutch offensive contributor, particularly with runners in scoring position. In addition, he set an American League record for career home runs by a third baseman. His 68.0 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is the highest among all players with a batting average of.250 or lower. Nettles was a six-time All-Star player. As a part of four pennant-winning Yankee teams, Nettles enjoyed his best season in 1977 when he won the Gold Glove Award and had career-highs in home runs (37) and runs batted in (107) in leading the Yankees to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nettles played his first full major league season with the Twins in 1969, and batted.222 with seven home runs and 26 RBI in 96 games. Nettles was named the AL player of the month for April 1974, as he set the AL record for home runs in a month with 11. Nettles missed and then was thrown to the ground by Braves first baseman (and former longtime Yankee teammate) Chris Chambliss who then sat on him.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.