Lest we forget: Don Sutton (UPDATE)

Are you kidding me?

I only heard about this today, even though Sutton, a 300-game winner and Hall of Famer, passed away Monday at the age of 75. Here’s his obituary from the Los Angeles Times by Bill Shaikin.

As Richard Sandomir’s notes in his obit in The New York Times, this makes nine Hall of Famers who have died since April 2020, including Sutton’s long-time manager, Tommy Lasorda.

Sutton pitched 16 of his 23 big league seasons for the LA Dodgers. Like many older players, he bounced around a bit before retiring, spending time with the Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Oakland As, and California Angels (as they were called at the time), where he picked up win #300 in 1986.

He led the league in only two categories: game starts (40 in 1974) and ERA (2.20 in 1980), although he ranks third all-time in games started (756) and seventh in innings pitched (5,282⅓). He appeared in “only” four All-Star Games and never won a Cy Young Award, although he finished fifth or better five times. He reminds one of Phil Niekro and Early Wynn, two other war horses who pitched into their forties to attain that magic number of victories.

Sutton went on to have a distinguished career as a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves for almost 30 years. He was inducted into the Hall in 1998.

UPDATE: Originally I had written that I was surprised there was no book by or about Sutton. James Meier informed me that there was indeed this unique item, published in 1977. Not what one might think of as a traditional book, but hey, it fits on the shelf so…

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