Former Oriole Palmer Suspects Sutton’s ‘Bandage’ Was True Grit

Angel pitcher Don Sutton claimed to be covering a blister with a bandage, but a former colleague named Jim Palmer suspects that the patch spotted on Sutton’s left hand Monday night was true grit.

Palmer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner with the Baltimore Orioles, told the Associated Press Tuesday that Sutton once showed him how to doctor a baseball by gluing a piece of sandpaper onto his glove hand.

“Don told me to just take some sandpaper and Super Glue, put it on your glove hand and when you rub the ball, kind of scuff it,” Palmer said.

Palmer hadn’t seen the replays of Monday night’s game between the Angels and the New York Yankees but laughed when told that a television close-up showed a dark-colored patch on the palm of Sutton’s left hand.

“He may have had a paper cut,” Palmer said.

Palmer also talked about a 1982 game when he accused Sutton of scuffing the baseball.

“It was the final game of the 1982 season,” he said. “Don was with Milwaukee then and pitching against me. He had rubbed (then American League President) Lee MacPhail’s name from the ball.

“I showed it to the umpire, and he just kind of laughed.

When apprised of Palmer’s comments, Sutton reacted angrily.

“It sounds like he’s trying to further his career at the expense of my interests,” Sutton said. “And he’s full of blank.”

Sutton actually used the word blank.

Tuesday, an American League spokesman said league president Bobby Brown was going to review the incident but doubted if any action would be taken.

“We have film and Dr. Brown is going to review it,” said Bob Fishel, AL executive vice president. “But there’s no move afoot to do anything about it.

“There was no protest by the Yankees and no report by the umpires. It didn’t affect the outcome of the game.”

Palmer, meanwhile, said he once took Sutton’s scuffball advice but failed miserably at the arts and crafts.

“I was working on it in the bullpen and it was so humid that night, 95 degrees and humidity to match,” he said. “The sandpaper kept falling off my hand and my skin was coming off because the glue was taking it with it.

“All I got was a Super Glue burn. I never got a chance to scuff the ball.”