Bruce Sutter, a Hall of Fame reliever and World Series champion, died on Thursday. He was 69. Sutter was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Bruce Sutter : What did die of | Cancer | died today
Sutter was born to Howard and Thelma Sutter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His father managed a Farm Bureau warehouse in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. Bruce was the fifth child of six.
Sutter graduated from Donegal High School in Mount Joy, where he played baseball, football and basketball.
He was quarterback and captain of the football team and also served as captain for the basketball squad, which won a district championship in his senior season. His baseball team also won the county championship.
What did die of
When Bruce Sutter began experimenting with the split-fingered fastball, he wasn’t looking for a path to Cooperstown. He was just hoping to save his career.
“I wouldn’t be here without that pitch,” Sutter said shortly before his Hall of Fame induction in 2006. “My other stuff was A ball, Double-A at best. The split-finger made it equal.”
Sutter, the full-bearded closer who paid for his own elbow surgery as a low minor leaguer and later pioneered the sharp-dropping pitch that came to dominate big league hitters for decades, died Thursday. He was 69.
Sutter was recently diagnosed with cancer and in hospice surrounded by his family, one of Sutter’s three sons, Chad, told The Associated Press. The Baseball Hall of Fame said Bruce Sutter died in Cartersville, Georgia.
A six-time All-Star, Sutter led the National League in saves for five years and won the 1979 Cy Young Award. He posted 300 saves in a 12-year career with the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves.
Sutter played in a era when closers routinely got more than three outs. He threw more than one inning for 188 of his saves and five times pitched more than 100 innings in a season.
Bruce Sutter Cancer
Former 13-year Major League Baseball relief pitcher, Hall of Famer, and 1979 National League Cy Young Award winner, Bruce Sutter, has died at the age of 69.
According to the Associated Press, Sutter was recently diagnosed with cancer and died on hospice Thursday night in Cartersville, Georgia, in the presence of his family.
“All our father ever wanted to be remembered as was being a great teammate,” the Sutter family said in a statement Friday. “But he was so much more than that. He was also a great husband to our mother for 50 years, he was a great father and grandfather and he was a great friend. But His love and passion for the game of baseball can only be surpassed by his love and passion for his family.”
Sutter made his Major League debut in 1976 with the Chicago Cubs. In five years with the club, he made four All-Star appearances and won the National League Cy Young Award in 1979, pitching solely in relief.
After the 1980 Major League season, the Cubs traded Sutter to their division rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, for Leon Durham, Ken Reitz and a player to be named later.
Died today
Bruce Sutter, a Hall of Fame reliever and the 1979 Cy Young winner, has died today. He was 69.
Sutter was recently diagnosed with cancer and died Thursday night in hospice, surrounded by his family, one of Sutter’s three sons, Chad, told The Associated Press.
He is considered one of the first pitchers to throw a split-finger fastball. He played 12 seasons in the major leagues, was a six-time All-Star and ended up with 300 saves over his career, according to The Associated Press.
Sutter debuted with the Chicago Cubs in 1976. The right-handed reliever won the Cy Young in 1979 in a season with 37 saves, 2.22 ERA and 110 strikeouts.
He later joined the St. Louis Cardinals and played with them from 1981 to 1984 and he won a World Series in 1982, ending Game 7 against the Brewers with a strikeout.
His last save, No. 300, came with the Atlanta Braves in 1988 also sutter was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
In a release, the Baseball Hall of Fame said that Sutter learned the split-finger fastball from a Cubs minor-league pitching instructor while recovering from surgery on his right elbow.
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