Don Sutton, 1945-2021

I guess Tommy Lasorda needed a pitcher. But he may have to flip Harvey Kuenn for him.

Donald Howard Sutton was born on April 2, 1945, in Clio, Alabama. It was the same day as his future Dodger teammate, Reggie Smith. Unfortunately, it was the same hometown as Alabama's notorious Governor George Wallace.

His father was 18, his mother was 15, and they were sharecroppers. Howard Sutton looked for better work, and found it outside Pensacola in Molino, Florida. Don went to J.M. Tate High School in nearby Cantonment. That should has also produced major league players Jay Bell, Travis Fryman, Stover McIlwain, Scotti Madison and Brad Salmon; and NFL players Fred Robbins (with the Giants when they won Super Bowl XLII), Brannon Condren (with the Jets when they reached the 2009 and '10 AFC Championship Games) and Graham Gano (a current Giant).

Don led Tate's baseball team to a State Championship in his junior year, 1962, and went to Gulf Coast Community College in nearby Panama City. He later transferred to Whittier College outside Los Angeles. Whittier was also the alma mater of future President Richard Nixon.

This is mildly significant because, as is often the case for star athletes in Los Angeles, Don would be in demand for TV shows. He was occasionally a panelist on Match Game. On May 8, 1978 -- by which point, his permed hair no longer seemed so unusual -- this question was asked: "The American dollar is in really bad trouble. Yesterday, I saw a crisp new dollar bill that said, 'In (blank) we trust.'"

The contestant said, "In no one we trust," and got a match from Brett Somers. Don said, "In Richard Nixon we trust." Host Gene Rayburn said, "That's a heap o' trouble." And Brett said, "Isn't that how we got here in the first place?"

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Don as a free agent on September 11, 1964. The 1st MLB Amateur Draft happened the next year. On April 14, 1966, he made his major league debut. He started for the Dodgers against the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium, and pitched well, going into the 8th innings, allowing 3 runs, 2 earned, on 7 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7. But 2 solo home runs from Jim Lefebvre were all the support he got, and he was the losing pitcher, 4-2.

The Dodgers had won the World Series the year before, and won the National League Pennant again. As a rookie, Sutton was 12-12, but with a 2.99 ERA, on a staff with future Hall-of-Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, and All-Star Claude Osteen. He did not appear in the World Series, and the Dodgers were swept by the Baltimore Orioles.

Injuries led Koufax to retire after that season, and Drysdale to do so in 1969. Sutton became the ace of the Dodger staff. Since Don Drysdale was nicknamed "Big D," Don Sutton became known as "Little D." He went 17-18 in 1969, 15-13 in 1970, 17-12 in 1971, and 19-9 in 1972, making the All-Star Game for the 1st of 4 times.

He went 18-10 in 1973, and 19-9 in 1974, as the Dodgers finally finished rebuilding. They won the NL Western Division for the 1st time, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates for the Pennant. He started and won Game 2 of the World Series against the Oakland Athletics, but that would be the only game the Dodgers won. He started Game 5, which the A's won after he left, to clinch.

He went 16-13 in 1975, and 21-10 in 1976. He finished 3rd in the voting for the NL Cy Young Award, the closest he would ever come to winning it. Despite only making 1 fewer start in 1977, he only went 14-8. But the Dodgers won the Pennant again, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series, and faced the Yankees in the World Series. Don started Game 1, and did not figure into the decision as the Yankees won in 12 innings. He won Game 5, but the Yankees won Game 6 on Reggie Jackson's 3 home runs.

On August 20, 1978, the Dodgers were at Shea Stadium to play the Mets. Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post had written a column quoting Sutton as being critical of the biggest star on the Dodgers, 1st baseman Steve Garvey. Garvey had won the NL Most Valuable Player award in 1974, and the Dodger organization had no problem with him being promoted by the Los Angeles media as not just a great player, but as an ideal. Not like that Yankee hot dog Reggie Jackson, or those self-promoters on the Cincinnati Reds, Pete Rose and Johnny Bench.

According to Boswell, Sutton said, "All you hear about on our team is Steve Garvey, the All-American Boy. But Reggie Smith was the real MVP. We all know it... He has carried us the last two years. He is not a facade. He does not have the Madison Avenue image." (Garvey was white. Smith was black. That may have had something to do with it.)

In the locker room, a furious Garvey confronted Sutton over it. Sutton admitted he'd said it. One thing led to another, and Sutton said something unkind about Garvey's wife Cyndy. They came to blows, and it took 2 minutes for coach Preston Gomez and general manager Al Campanis to break it up. Sutton had a large bruise on his face, Garvey several cuts. The Dodgers went on to beat the Mets anyway, 5-4. (The Mets were pretty bad at the time.)

Sutton went 15-11 that season. The Dodgers went on to win the NL West again, beat the Phillies in the NLCS again, and took a 2-0 lead over the Yankees in the World Series, as Sutton won Game 2. But the Yankees won the next 4, including beating Sutton in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers had an off-year in 1979, and Don went just 12-15. However, he got his start in broadcasting that year. At the time, both ABC and NBC sometimes used active players whose teams had not qualified for the postseason to be the 3rd man in the booth for the League Championship Series and the World Series. NBC hired Don for the '79 NLCS between the Reds and the Pirates.

In 1980, he went 13-5, and led the NL with a 2.20 ERA. But the Dodgers lost a single-game Playoff for the Division title to the Astros. Don's contract ran out, and the Astros, desperate for a star pitcher alongside Nolan Ryan after J.R. Richard's stroke, signed Don.

In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he went 11-9, as the Astros made the split-season Playoffs, but lost the NL Division Series -- to the Dodgers. In other words, the Dodgers and the Astros had played each other in back-to-back Playoffs, and Don had played for each, and lost each time. The Dodgers finally won the World Series without him, beating the Yankees.

On August 30, 1982, the Milwaukee Brewers, who had also made the split-season Playoffs the year before, but lost the American League Division Series to the Yankees, sent Kevin Bass, Frank DiPino, Mike Madden and cash to the Astros, all to get one player, Sutton.

Managed by Harvey Kuenn, a 10-time All-Star, the AL's 1953 Rookie of the Year and its 1959 batting champion, the Brewers had an attack that earned them the nickname "Harvey's Wallbangers," including future Hall-of-Famers Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Ted Simmons, plus sluggers Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie, Cecil Cooper and Don Money. Yount, Molitor, Cooper and Jim Gantner batted between .295 and .331; Yount, Simmons, Thomas, Oglivie and Cooper hit between 23 and 39 home runs; while Yount, Simmons, Thomas, Oglivie and Cooper had between 91 and 121 RBIs. (Under previous manager George Bamberger, they had been "Bambi's Bombers.")

And Don joined a pitching staff that had future Hall-of-Famer Rollie Fingers, the previous year's AL Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player winner, who had pitched against him for the A's in the 1974 World Series; Pete Vukovich, who would win that season's AL Cy Young; and Mike Caldwell, who had perhaps the best curveball in the major leagues at the time. (Doug Jones was a rookie on that team, and got hit hard, and didn't return to the majors until 1986, but would eventually save 303 games, almost as many as Fingers' 314, mostly for the Cleveland Indians.)

With Don going 17-9 between the 2 teams, the Brewers won the AL Eastern Division, but fell 2-0 behind the California Angels in the ALCS. But Don won Game 3, and the Brewers came from behind to take the Pennant.

He did not pitch well in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, leaving after 6 innings in Game 2, which the Brewers later lost, and losing Game 6. The Cardinals won in Game 7, and that's the closest that Don would ever get to a World Championship.

He tailed off in 1983, going 8-13. But he did reach a major milestone that year: On June 24, he struck out Alan Bannister of the Cleveland Indians, for the 3,000th strikeout of his career.

He recovered in 1984, going 14-12. Then the Brewers traded him to the A's. He went 13-8 for them in 1985, but was traded on September 10, to the Angels, going back to the Los Angeles area. He went 2-2 for them, and then, at age 41, 15-11 for them in 1986. On June 18, he pitched a complete game against the Texas Rangers, for his 300th victory.

He started Game 4 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox, and did not figure in the decision, as the Angels won in 11 innings. They took a 3-1 lead, but lost a classic Game 5, and were already losing Game 7 at Fenway Park when he gave up a home run to Dwight Evans. The Angels already had a history of choking, but to choke to the Red Sox? At the time, that was considered a deep dishonor.

Speaking of dishonor: He was 43 as the 1987 season dawned, but it looked like he could keep going. But how was he doing it? We come back to Thomas Boswell. In his 1982 book How Life Imitates the World Series, he wrote that Sutton:

In a 2013 interview, he was asked if he ever cheated. He said, "No, I never got caught cheating." The hell he didn't: On August 24, 1987, the Angels were playing the Yankees at Anaheim Stadium. Don started, and left after 7 innings, with the game tied 2-2. At one point, Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, sure that Sutton was cheating, asked to have a camera stay on Sutton.

Sure enough, an instant replay was provided, catching Sutton red-handed -- or, more accurately, sand-handed: He had a small piece of sandpaper taped to his left hand, under his glove. The Scooter yelled, "Oh, yes! Holy cow, we got him! We got him!" Sutton wasn't punished, but justice prevailed: The Yankees won 3-2 in 11 innings.

After going 11-11 that season, the Angels released him. The Dodgers brought him back for a last hurrah, but it was not to be: He went 3-6, and was released on August 10. And then, just as happened in 1980-81, for a 2nd time, they won the World Series after getting rid of him.

He finished his career with 324 wins and 256 losses, 3,574 strikeouts, an ERA of 3.26, an ERA+ of 108 (not especially impressive), and a WHIP of 1.142 (which is very impressive). He started 756 games in the major leagues. Only 2 pitchers have started more: Cy Young with 815, and Nolan Ryan with 773. The active leader is Zack Greinke with 459.

Some fans thought he didn't deserve to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Like Gaylord Perry and Phil Niekro, who were also members of both the 300 Wins Club and the 3,000 Strikeouts Club (at the time, the only other members were Walter Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton), he was considered "one of these guys who hung around for a long time, amassing a lot of stats."

Certainly, he was not considered by many to be an all-time great. When The Sporting News named its 100 Greatest Players in 1999, he was not included.

But Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which a player at 100 is considered to be a "Likely HOFer." Sutton was at 149, well ahead of the mark. B-R also has "Hall of Fame Standards," which is more weighted toward career statistics, and on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50. Sutton was at 58, so he qualifies there, too.

B-R also has "Similarity Scores," and the top 10 pitchers most statistically similar to Don Sutton are, in descending order: Gaylord Perry, Bert Blyleven, Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro, Tom Seaver, Greg Maddux, Tommy John, Warren Spahn, Fergie Jenkins and Early Wynn.

All but Blyleven, John and Jenkins have at least 300 wins. All but John, Spahn and Wynn have at least 3,000 strikeouts. And all but John are in the Hall. So, by B-R's measure, Sutton belonged. What's more, every pitcher with at least 300 wins is in the Hall, except for Roger Clemens, whose reason for being kept out was demolished with 2 words: "Not Guilty." And every pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts who is eligible is in except for Clemens and Curt Schilling, either of whom could be elected in the next few days. (The recently-retired CC Sabathia and the active Justin Verlander are not yet eligible.)

In the end, the thought of keeping out a pitcher who was in both the 300 Wins Club and the 3,000 Strikeouts Club proved to be ridiculous. In 1998, his 5th year of eligibility, Don Sutton was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Dodgers subsequently retired his Number 20.

(They only retire numbers for Hall-of-Famers, making a sole exception when coach and former player Jim Gilliam, Number 19, died late in the 1978 season. Steve Garvey's 6 is rarely given out, and Fernando Valenzuela's 34 has never been, but neither man has been elected to the Hall of Fame, and so their numbers have not been officially retired.)

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There have been many star baseball players who have gone on to become star broadcasters as well. Many have done so for the teams for whom they played. But a few have done so for teams for whom they had never played: Bill White and Ken Singleton for the Yankees, Ralph Kiner and Tim McCarver for the Mets, Duke Snider for the Montreal Expos (although he had played for the minor-league Montreal Royals), Bob Uecker for the Milwaukee Brewers (though he was a Milwaukee native and had played for the Milwaukee Braves), Tony Kubek for the Toronto Blue Jays, and Ken Harrelson for the Chicago White Sox.

In 1989, Don began broadcasting for the Dodgers, but in 1990, he moved to TBS to call games for the Atlanta Braves, not a team he had ever played for, but the major league team closest to his Alabama birthplace, and the one closest to his Florida hometown. (Atlanta is 300 miles from Molino. Both the Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays are more than 500 miles from it.)

He survived cancer in 2002, and continued to broadcast for the Braves until 2006, The following year, he joined MASN to broadcast for the Washington Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, another team for whom he had never thrown a pitch. After the 2009 season, he returned to the Braves.

The Braves elected him to their team Hall of Fame, where he joined fellow broadcasters Ernie Johnson Sr. (who had pitched for the Braves in Milwaukee, and whose son Ernie Jr. is also a broadcaster), Skip Caray (son of Harry, father of Chip), and Pete Van Wieren. A section of U.S. Route 29, between his hometowns of Clio and Molino, has been named the Don Sutton Highway. A youth baseball complex in Molino has also been named for him.

Don and his wife Mary had 2 daughters, Staci and Jacquie; and a son, Daron. Daron Sutton pitched in the Braves' and Angels' organizations, but didn't make the major leagues. He broadcast alongside Don for the Braves in 1997, '98 and '99. He has since broadcast for the Brewers, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the basketball team at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and college events on Fox Sports. He has also hosted a show on MLB Network Radio.

Don and Daron have both hosted celebrity golf tournaments. Apparently, Don was one of the better golfers among baseball players, and was part of NBC's golf broadcasting team, even while still an active pitcher.

Don broke his leg before the 2019 season, and upon further examination, it was found that his cancer had returned. He died this past Monday, January 18, 2021, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, outside Palm Springs. He was 75 years old.

There's an old joke: A baseball team is flying, and the plane runs into turbulence. Two of the players are roommates, and they're sitting together, and they're sure they're going to die. The plane straightens out, it lands safely, and they can relax. At the hotel that night, they start talking about life and death, and they wonder if there's life after death, and if there's baseball in Heaven. They make a pact: Whichever of them dies first will find out if there's baseball in Heaven, and find a way to let the other know.

Time pass. The players finish their careers, retire, settle into post-baseball life, and get old. One of them dies. A week later, the other player is watching a game on television, when suddenly, the other player appears:

Harry: "Jim! It's me, Harry!"

Jim: "Harry? How did you get on TV?"
Harry: "Jim, I got good news and bad news!"

Jim: "What is it?"

Harry: "The good news is, There is baseball in Heaven!"

Jim: "Great! So, what's the bad news?"

Harry: "You're pitching tomorrow!"

Like Whitey Ford, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson, all of whom died within the last year, Don Sutton can now take the mound in Heaven. But for which of his former managers? Walter Alston? Tommy Lasorda? Gene Mauch? Harvey Kuenn? (Bill Virdon, his manager in Houston, is still alive.)

One thing is for sure: He won't be allowed to use sandpaper up there. He'll have to rely on his wits.