With help from my buddy Brando, I did an APBA baseball replay of the 1984 NLCS last night. Results aside (ok, the Cubs won. Yay. As a Cub fan, I feel vindicated), a question arose.
On San Diego thirdbaseman Graig Nettles’ APBA card, it show his nickname as “Puff”. Neither Brando or I knew why or how Nettles how he got this nickname. “Puff” seemed to me such a feminine name for such a hard-nosed player like Nettles.
So I looked it up. According to Baseball Reference’s Bullpen:
Graig Nettles was given the nickname of Puff by his teammates. "Puff" referred to the way Graig disappeared after playing a practical joke or starting trouble.
Another interesting aside… Nettles, who played the bulk of his career with the Yankees before being traded to San Diego (for Dennis Rasmussen), was a San Diego native and attended San Diego State University. Perhaps he wanted to get closer to home.
Actually I was in the Padre organization back in ’84 and was having drinks with Graig,Tempy and Goose Gossage and some of us other Minor Leaguers.
When the Check came at the end of the night Nettles was GONE. That’s when Goose says “and that’s why we call him “Puff”…..Guess who got stuck with the check???
wow now THAT’S interesting. :)