Speaker Profile

Don Sutton

Don Sutton

Organization: MLB

Role: Player

Sport: Baseball

Speaking Year: 1999

Donald Howard Sutton is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher for 23 major league seasons as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, and California Angels. He won a total of 324 games, 58 of them shutouts with five of them one-hitters and 10 two-hitters, seven which were shutouts, and he is seventh on baseball’s all-time strikeout list with 3,574.

Sutton was born in Clio, Alabama. He attended high school and community college in Florida before entering professional baseball. After a year in the minor leagues, Sutton joined the Dodgers. Beginning in 1966, he was in the team’s starting pitching rotation with Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen. 16 of Sutton’s 23 MLB seasons were spent with the Dodgers. He registered only one 20-win season, but earned 10 or more wins in every season except 1983 and 1988.

Sutton entered broadcasting after his retirement as a player. He has worked in this capacity for several teams, the majority being with the Atlanta Braves. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.