Bruce Sutter
FameRank: 4

"Howard Bruce Sutter" is a former Major League Baseball right-handed relief pitcher. He was arguably the first pitcher to make effective use of the split-finger fastball. One of the sport's dominant relievers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he became the only pitcher to lead the National League in save (sport)/saves five times (1979–1982, 1984). In , Sutter won the NL's Cy Young Award as the league's top pitcher.

Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Sutter briefly attended Old Dominion University and was subsequently signed by the Chicago Cubs as an undrafted free agent in 1971. Between 1976 and 1988, he played for the Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. In 1984, Sutter signed a contract with Atlanta that would pay him $4.8 million over six years and place another $4.8 million into a deferred payment account. The press estimated that with interest the account would pay Sutter $1.3 million per year for 30 years. In the mid-1980s, Sutter began to experience shoulder problems, undergoing three surgeries and retiring in 1989.

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Most everyone, the middle finger is dominant. With me, it was this one. That made it easy to throw. I got it to break real quick.

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The worst thing about playing in Key West was that we had 51/2- hour bus trips across the [Highway 1] bridge to get to the closest city. One night, the bus driver fell asleep and hit the bridge. It was a miracle we weren't all killed.

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It was the call you always hope for, but you never really expect it to happen. I can't tell you what in means to me, in words.

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I owe a lot to those two.

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It was a call that you always hope for, but you never really expect it to happen. I didn't think it would affect me or hit me as hard as it did.

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I think sometimes the voters try to compare us with the starting pitchers. We can't compete with their statistics, their innings or their strikeouts. I think if you compare us against each other, I think you'll see we're all pretty equal.

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I was planning a hunting trip next year if I didn't get in this year. I didn't need to be around the phone, I can tell you that.

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It just tickles me still when you see Roger Clemens, as great as he is, throw a split-finger and the hitter just swings and misses. They don't see that ball that well. Jack Morris threw an awful good one and Mike Scott -- there's a lot of great pitchers over the years that I think that pitch definitely helped their career.

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The stadium wasn't the best, and the lights weren't the best. Wallis hit the ball by the lights. And nobody ever saw the ball come down. So they gave him a home run. What else are you going to do? It was one of the strangest things I ever saw.

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