Nothing says “Twinkie” like Joe Rudi of the Oakland A’s

Man, Joe Rudi had the prototypical 1970s ballplayer aesthetic, didn’t he? Like an avatar of groovy baseball.

Rudi was a vital cog for the Oakland A’s teams that won three consecutive World Series, and Ferguson Jenkins and Don Sutton are both Hall of Fame pitchers, with enough Ws and Ks to choke a horse — so it’s no surprise that they’d be front and center for this Hostess baseball cards ad campaign. But one wonders how vital Twinkies and cup cakes were to the diet of the ’70s big leaguer. True, training regimens of yesteryear weren’t what they are today, with year-long weight training and supplementation, and there weren’t junk food police around hectoring about sugar and calories, but there are limits, you know? Were their mass-produced baked goods arrayed next to the bowls of greenies in MLB clubhouses?