Don Sutton
Barbour County native Don Sutton (1945-2021) was a star right-handed pitcher in the major leagues for 23 years, from 1966 to 1988, primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He helped lead the Dodgers to four World Series appearances and another with the Milwaukee Brewers and was a four-time All-Star. After retiring as a player, he worked for decades as a sports commentator. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame.
Donald Howard Sutton was born in Clio, Barbour County, on April 2, 1945, to sharecroppers Charlie Howard Sutton and Lillian McKnight Sutton; he had two younger siblings. Unable to earn a sustainable living in Alabama, the family sought better job opportunities in Molino, Florida, where Sutton’s father eventually found employment as a concrete worker. Sutton attended J. M. Tate High School in Cantonment, Florida, where he played baseball, football, and basketball. He starred in baseball, leading his high-school team to the Class A state championship game in his junior and senior years. He graduated in 1963. Disappointed by his failure to receive a baseball scholarship from the University of Florida, he chose Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida, before transferring to Whittier College in Whittier, California.
After pitching for an independent league team in Sioux Falls during the summer of 1964, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him. At 19 years old, Sutton spent the 1965 season pitching for two Dodger minor league affiliates, Santa Barbara (Class A) and Albuquerque (Double A). His success in both leagues enabled him to skip Triple A baseball and start for the Dodgers’ major league club in 1966.
With the Dodgers, Sutton joined an outstanding pitching roster featuring Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Claude Osteen. He learned a great deal about pitching from these three stars, and pitching alongside them took the pressure off Sutton as a young rookie. Sutton was injured at the end of the 1966 season and was unable to play when the Dodgers met the Baltimore Orioles in their 1966 World Series loss. Afterward, he learned to pitch with an over-the-top, as opposed to a three-quarters, delivery, enabling him to throw the ball with less pressure on his elbow; with this skill, he largely avoided arm injuries in subsequent years.
Throughout his career with the Dodgers, Sutton was known for his consistency as a pitcher. He pitched more than 200 innings every year from 1966-86, except in 1981 when a strike cut the baseball season short. After his absence at the 1966 World Series, he helped lead the Dodgers to the World Series three more times: in 1974 against the Oakland Athletics, in 1977 against the New York Yankees, and again against the Yankees in 1978. The Dodgers lost each time. Sutton made the All-Star team four times: in 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1977.
In 1978, Sutton garnered media attention when he fought with star teammate Steve Garvey. Sutton had criticized Garvey’s overly polished image and disproportionate media coverage in an interview with The Washington Post. When Garvey confronted Sutton in the Dodgers clubhouse, the latter responded with an inappropriate comment about Steve’s wife, Cyndy Garvey, and a fistfight ensued. Sutton and Garvey put the feud behind them shortly thereafter.
In 1981, Sutton became a free agent and left the Dodgers for the Houston Astros, with whom he played for less than two seasons before he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in August 1982. He pitched for the Brewers in that year’s World Series, but the team lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. Although Sutton made it clear that he wanted to pitch in southern California so that he could be near his family, in 1985, the Brewers traded him to the Oakland Athletics in northern California. Sutton considered retiring, but his goal to reach 300 victories led him to agree to play for Oakland. In September 1985, the Athletics traded him to the California (Anaheim) Angels in southern California.
In 1988, Sutton returned to the Dodgers but was released later that year, two months before the Dodgers defeated the Athletics in the World Series. After retiring from baseball, Sutton began a long career in baseball broadcasting, beginning in 1989 as a commentator for the Dodgers, before switching to play-by-play commentary for the Atlanta Braves from 1990-06. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, his fifth year of eligibility. Sutton was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2002, resulting in the removal of his left kidney and part of his lung, but he continued his broadcasting career while undergoing cancer treatment. He then became a Washington Nationals broadcaster from 2007-08 before returning to the Braves in 2009 and remaining there until 2019.
Widely regarded as one of the finest pitchers of his generation, Sutton struck out more than 100 batters in 21 straight seasons and had 3,574 career strikeouts, seventh most in baseball history. He averaged 14 wins a season with 324 career victories (tying him with Nolan Ryan), versus 256 losses. Only 24 pitchers in major league history have had 300 or more victories, including fellow Alabamian Early Wynn.
In addition to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he was also inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, in 1987, the Dodgers Hall of Fame, in 1998, and the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame, in 2015. The Dodgers retired Sutton’s number in 1998. A part of U.S. Highway 29, which leads from Pensacola into southern Alabama, was renamed the “Don Sutton Highway.”
Sutton had two children, a son and a daughter, with his first wife, Patti, whom he married in 1968. He had a third child, a daughter, with his second wife, Mary. Sutton died on January 19, 2021, in Rancho Mirage, California.
