THE YEAR OF THE OLD SPORT : THE AGELESS ANGEL : After 22 Seasons and 310 Wins, Don Sutton, 41, Says He’s in Better Physical Condition Than Ever

Is it possible, having now spent 22 years in the major leagues and reached the age of 41, that Don Sutton is in better physical condition than ever?

“I think I have to be,” Sutton said over breakfast recently in a Tustin restaurant. He had ordered a bran muffin and bowl of long rice. It was 8 a.m., and Sutton had been up since 6, reading four newspapers before traveling to a health club near his Laguna Hills home for an hour workout with a life cycle and Nautilus equipment.

“What I do has to be more exact and refined now,” he said, alluding to his role as a starting pitcher with the Angels and the fact that he can’t go as hard or as long as he once did. “One of the big assets in my career, a thing that has always helped me, has been conditioning, but it has to be even better now. Another is control, but it has to be even better now. I’ve always wanted to know about the opposing hitters, but I have to know more now because my margin of error is so much smaller than it used to be.”

Conforming to defined margins is what Sutton is all about now. Disciplined and dedicated, he has effectively sustained a career that began in 1966. Wally Joyner, the Angel first baseman, was 3 years old when Sutton delivered his first pitch for the Dodgers. Lyndon Johnson was President.

In 1986, four administrations later, Sutton was 15-11, maintaining his career average for wins and losses in a season while conforming to a limit of about 100 pitches per start.

He earned a travel voucher to Cooperstown and helped make it the Year of the Old Sport by becoming only the 19th pitcher to register 300 victories when he defeated Texas, 5-1, with a three-hitter June 18. His license plate now reads: “300 WINS.” Don’t believe everything you read. His career total is 310 and counting. The DMV may not be able to keep up.

The Angels have renewed Sutton’s option for 1987. It is the last year of a contract signed after the 1985 season. Is it his last year, period? Sutton isn’t prepared to say.

He does say that physically, in a program where he is not allowed to overextend himself, he can probably pitch for two or three more years. “Who knows?” he said. “This year may have been a fluke. I may not get out of spring training next year. But if that happens, it won’t be because of a lack of effort. As long as I can keep being productive, I’d like to keep playing. If it reaches the point where my being on the club is an embarrassment to it and me, then I don’t want to play.

“I mean, one of my great fears in life is the fear of embarrassment. I’ve always pitched to keep from being embarrassed. I don’t pitch to overpower or dominate, I pitch to stay out of trouble.”

Sutton was one of six major league pitchers still active at 40 or older last year. The others were Phil and Joe Niekro at 47 and 42 respectively, Tommy John, 43, and Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver, 42. Among a group at 35 or older are Nolan Ryan, Charlie Hough, Vida Blue, Bert Blyleven, Ron Guidry, Rick Reuschel, Jerry Reuss, Bob Forsch and Goose Gossage.

The names are different, but many of the characteristics are the same--at least in Sutton’s view. He cited good work habits, a willingness to sacrifice, the ability to live with and rebound from short-term embarrassments such as his own 2-5 start to the 1986 season, the desire to be different and a cut above others, and an open mind that sustains the learning process.

He said that in most cases these are “highly motivated individuals” who know how to look for an edge, make adjustments and “bear up under demands that a 25-year-old doesn’t have to make on himself. I think you have to want to climb mountains and be willing to get up from the humiliation when you fall. You have to be able to overcome a lot of public and private sentiment, people saying, ‘Hey, why don’t you give it up and give a younger guy the job.’ ”

It starts, he said, with a competitive fire and ultimately transcends the monetary rewards.

“I think you have to be motivated by pride and want to go some place others haven’t,” he said. “I think you have to be motivated by what you want to accomplish rather than what you want to make.”

Sutton cited the current salary structure and said, “If you’ve been successful and even halfway smart, by the time you’re 30 you should either have the money to live on or the connections to live on so why continue to spend 90 days a year on the road, why continue to get up at 5:30 in the morning to work out, why go to spring training and hurt when you could be going to your son’s Little League games or your daughter’s prom? These are guys who want to be a cut above for reasons other than money and will continue to compete until the fire goes out--in most cases successfully.”

The breakfast interview was interrupted by a man who had been sitting at a nearby table. He introduced himself as a family counselor and said he viewed Sutton’s comments as narcissistic and egotistical. He told Sutton that he (Sutton) would have different opinions if he had to compete in the real world. A composed Sutton invited the man to sit and discuss it, but the man refused and walked away.

Sutton stared after him, shook his head and said: “What does he mean compete like everybody else? I did. I was a tenant farmer’s kid. I grew up in an environment where if we didn’t all work hard and long hours we didn’t eat. My whole approach to work was instilled when we were voting 3-2 against starvation. I mean, I believe there are only two reasons for not giving your best and being on time--death and coma.”

And is there ego and narcissism associated with it?

“Of course,” Sutton said. “I don’t think you can stay around laying it on the line this long without ego and pride. But the question is, does my ego control me or do I use my ego beneficially? I think I use my ego. It may sound less than humble, but my M.O. in life has been, ‘Damn right I want to be better.’ But I believe that all the people who buy in for the ride are going to be better, too. All I ask is for somebody to provide encouragement or just say, ‘I care.’ ”

Sutton cares, visiting the health club six mornings a week during the winter, following a regimen he has written out on 3-by-5 cards, now laminated. He spends the rest of the day at the Laguna Hills offices of his SuttCor International, an investment and advisory company.

“I’ve been blessed with a body that’s obviously not Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I don’t get hurt and I have a delivery that doesn’t put stress on it,” he said. “A gift like that is the same as giving a 16-year-old a car. How long it lasts depends on what you do with it and how you take care of it. I’d like to think that I’ve recognized it as a gift and tried to take care of it very well.”

Sutton, of course, is at home amid the geriatric environment of the Angels clubhouse. He compares it to a daily viewing of “On Golden Pond.” His own work ethic is challenged by Bob Boone and Doug DeCinces and others. He is constantly reminded of the need for adjustment--physically and mentally.

“I don’t expect to make 35 starts and pitch 270 innings,” he said. “I don’t expect to win 20 games and have a two zero earned-run average. I do expect to make 30 or so starts and reach 200 or so innings and give somebody the best of what I have left, which is why spring training starts in November. I also expect to be paid accordingly, which means not as a Fernando (Valenzuela) or a Mike Scott or a Dwight Gooden would be paid. At one time maybe I was one of the best and could demand the salary and everything else that went along with it. I’m not one of the top four or five now and I have to adjust to that and accept it.”

Sutton received a 1986 salary of $550,000 and another $340,000 in bonuses based primarily on innings pitched. Three hundred wins was his goal of goals. The goal-oriented Sutton said he gets goose bumps watching the tape, remembering the support of the crowd, the excitement displayed by his teammates and the electricity of the final inning. He was the fifth oldest pitcher to achieve 300, but the significance of the number isn’t clear to him yet. Nor does he know what his next goal of goals will be, though he cited the pursuit of 740 starts (he has 706), 5,300 innings (he has 5,002), 3,500 strikeouts (he has 3,431) and 325 wins.

He said that he also hopes to watch Mike Witt continue to improve, Kirk McCaskill mature into a dominant pitcher and Chuck Finley “become the next Dave Righetti.”

“Selfishly,” Sutton said, “I’d like to have a part in all of that, too.”

He reflected and said that he hopes the longevity of his career will serve as an illustration that “regardless of where you start you can accomplish something special by working hard enough.” The longevity has also taught him how to relate to people, an aspect of his career he wasn’t good at when he first started.

“The last five or six years have been the most rewarding of my career in terms of relationships,” Sutton said. “I’ve gotten to know and appreciate some people I probably wouldn’t have liked the first 10 or 12 years because I wouldn’t have given them a chance and I wouldn’t have understood.

“Now I’ve learned from some very nice guys who are very different from me, and I would hope that when my career is over people would say I was dependable, that I worked hard, that I was consistent and that in the last third of his career he really put some effort into caring about the people he played with.”