Sutton Finds His Location

The first time I remember seeing Don Sutton, he was standing on the tarmac at the airport in Vero Beach. He was a 20-year-old kid with a hellacious curveball and he wasn’t afraid to throw it in a crisis.

“Hell! He throws that thing on 3-and-2 with the bases loaded,” Eddie Mathews used to complain. “Somebody should explain things to that rook.”

Sutton was going back to L.A. with the home team that year. He got a great break. Spokane was to have been his destination, except that the team’s star pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, had chosen to hold out jointly for more money--the unthinkable sum of $1 million for three years, $500,000 each. They eventually signed single-season contracts, Koufax for $125,000 and Big D $110,000. Of course, the year was 1966. Today, Koufax would be getting that per game.

At any rate, Sutton stuck that year, even when the big arms finally came back. He won 12 games and became part of one of the best staffs the game has ever seen--Koufax, Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Sutton.

Sutton pitched 16 years with the Dodgers, 23 in the majors. He won 324 games. Only 11 pitchers in the long history of baseball won more. He struck out 3,574 batters. Only four pitchers ever struck out more. He threw 58 shutouts. Only nine pitchers have thrown more.

His stats had Hall of Fame written all over them. You would have thought he’d go in by acclamation. They’d send a car for him.

Yet, Don Sutton was eligible for five years before they voted him in this year. In a few more, his eligibility would have been used up.

The Hall of Fame makes the eye of the needle look like the Holland Tunnel. It’s easier to get into the House of Lords.

Joe DiMaggio didn’t make the Hall his first year. You heard me. Joe Freaking DiMaggio. The Yankee Clipper is all he was. Henry Aaron wasn’t unanimous.

Sutton’s delayed selection, and semi-rejection, seems a bit more complicated. You would think a guy who was tied for 12th on the all-time win list would get a Marine escort. But Sutton had his resisters. First of all, the figure filberts were fond of pointing out that he had only one 20-win season. OK, but he had two in which he won 19, and he had 18- and 17-victory seasons.

More to the point, it seemed, was that Sutton came up in the shadow of Koufax and Drysdale. He was dimmed in the glare of their glory. Just remember the number of great players who came up in the era of Ruth and Gehrig but were overlooked because they weren’t Ruth or Gehrig. Never mind the familiar trivia question, “Who played third base in the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance infield?” How about, “Who played left field to Willie Mays?”

Then, there was Sutton himself. He was a consummate professional, but he was also religious. He sometimes credited God for his success, instead of his outfielders.

Now there are, incongruously, among us knights of the press, some who are more offended by guys given to prayer than by guys who choke their coaches. And they have Hall of Fame votes. Some actively resented Don Sutton.

I could never figure out why. Don even had a nice sense of humor. I remember one year, 1970, he gave up no fewer than 38 home runs. I began the questioning in an interview with, “Don, how do you hold your gopher ball?”

Ask some pitchers that and you will find yourself hanging on a hook in the shower. Sutton took it in stride.

“It’s a two-seamer, Mur, and location is important,” he dead-panned. “Try to get it in the middle of the plate.”

But conscience has prevailed and Don Sutton has finally gotten where he belongs--Cooperstown. About time.

I must say I’m glad. Don Sutton is your basic blue-collar worker. He punched in at the office regularly for 23 seasons. He never missed a start. He was a manager’s dream. He was ready every day, like Cal Ripken Jr., or, probably, your grandfather. No excuses, just give me the ball.

I have to approve the quotes that were attributed to Sut (the Dodgers used to call him “Elmer” on occasion) at the Hall of Fame swearing in. Said Sutton, according to the reports: “I always felt I wasn’t perceived as being as good as the [other] guys on our staff. But that only made me work harder.

“My mom and dad were tenant farmers, share-croppers. So I’ve never known anything but hard work.

“My dad went to work every day, never made excuses, never asked for nothing. And what my dad taught me is true. If you’re willing to work, you can make your dreams come true.”

God gave him the curveball, but Dad gave him the work ethic. Sutton pitched for five clubs in the big leagues--Dodgers, Athletics, Brewers, Astros and Angels. He helped put his teams in five championship series and four World Series.

When the game started, he was ready. Never an illness, sore muscle, missed bus, hangover. No rotator cuff, hangnail. If he had a headache, he took it out on the batter. And he started 756 games. Know the only two guys in the history of the game who have started more? Cy Young and Nolan Ryan.

You think Nolan Ryan is going to have trouble going into the Hall next year, his first year of eligibility? Think he’s going to stand in the doorway for five years, wiping his feet and waiting to be asked in?

You wonder what they wanted Sutton to do--part the Red Sea? Multiply loaves and fishes? Never mind. Better late than never. But they should apologize.