Hall of Famer Don Sutton is dead…

[Wild74]

Hall of Famer Don Sutton is dead…

Posted by Kane on January 19, 2021 9:11 pm

NEWS JUNKIES -- CHECK OUT OUR HOMEPAGE

 

 

 

Don Sutton, a Hall of Fame pitcher who was a stalwart of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation spanning an era from Sandy Koufax to Fernando Valenzuela, died Tuesday. He was 75.

 

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, said Sutton died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, after a long struggle with cancer. He died in his sleep.

 

A four-time All-Star, Sutton had a career record of 324-256 and an ERA of 3.26 while pitching for the Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, California Angels and the Dodgers again in 1988, his final season.

 

The durable Sutton never missed a turn in the rotation in 756 big league starts. Only Cy Young and Nolan Ryan made more starts than Sutton, who never landed on the injured list in his 23-year career.

 

A master of changing speeds and pitch location, Sutton recorded just one 20-win season but earned 10 or more wins in every year except 1983 and 1988. Of his victories, 58 were shutouts, five were one-hitters and 10 were two-hitters. The right-hander is seventh on the career strikeout list with 3,574.

 

Sutton ranks third all-time in games started and seventh in innings pitched (5,282 1/3). He worked at least 200 innings in 20 of his first 21 seasons, with only the strike-shortened 1981 season interrupting his streak.

 

Donald Howard Sutton was born April 2, 1945, in Clio, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers. The family moved to northern Florida, where Sutton was a three-sport star in high school who showed an affinity for baseball as a youngster. He played the sport in junior college before the Dodgers signed him as a free agent in September 1964, months before the first MLB draft.

 

Sutton immediately found himself in a rotation with Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen as the fourth starter. Sutton recorded 209 strikeouts that season, the highest total for a rookie since 1911. He helped the team win the National League pennant but didn’t pitch in the World Series as the Dodgers were swept in four games by the Baltimore Orioles.

 

He also led the Dodgers to National League pennants in 1974, 1977 and 1978.

 

Sutton was 4-1 with a 2.02 ERA in seven National League Championship Series games and was 2-3 in eight World Series games. In the 1974 postseason for the Dodgers, he was 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 25 strikeouts in four games.

 

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. The Dodgers retired his number 20 the same year.

 

Sutton carved out a new career as a broadcaster after his playing days ended, spent almost entirely with the Atlanta Braves.

 

He joined the Braves in 1989 when they were one of baseball’s worst teams but had developed a national following through the TBS superstation and its trio of broadcasters: Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren and Ernie Johnson Sr.

[RETIREDFAN1]

R. I. P.