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.”
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. “The awards, you know, after he retired, that was kind of the time where he was like, ‘Man, I did OK, you know.’ Being a teammate was what mattered most to him,” he said.
Sutter was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1953. Drafted by the Washington Senators in the 21st round in 1970, he was only 17 and too young to sign. Unable to throw as hard as he could previously, Sutter had the good fortune to learn the split-fingered fastball from Cubs minor league pitching instructor Fred Martin at spring training in 1973.
“It came to me easy, but it took a long time to learn how to control it,” Sutter said. “I could throw pretty hard. I might strike out 16 guys, but I might walk 10. I mean, I was wild.”
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