Don Sutton

Don Sutton, a durable right-handed pitcher who won 324 games over 23 years for five teams, most notably the Los Angeles Dodgers, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, died in January 2021 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 75. Sutton’s major league career began with the Dodgers in 1966. He went on to win 233 games during 16 seasons with the team, the most in franchise history. Sutton also pitched for the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, California Angels and Oakland A’s before retiring in 1988. Donald Howard Sutton was born on April 2, 1945, in Clio, Ala., a small city in the southeast part of the state. His father, Charlie Howard Sutton, was a sharecropper who later worked in construction and became a concrete expert. His mother was Lillian (McKnight) Sutton. The Suttons moved to Molino, in the Florida panhandle, when Don was 5. He excelled in high school and pitched at Gulf Coast Community College, in Panama City, Fla., and Whittier College in California before signing with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1964. After he retired, Sutton spent most of his time as an Atlanta Braves broadcaster, known mostly for his easygoing manner and sharp-eyed analysis of the Braves’ pitching staff, which included the future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Sutton missed the 2019 season with a fractured left femur and did not return to the Braves’ broadcast booth. Sutton’s survivors include his wife, Mary; his son, Daron; and two daughters, Staci and Jacquie.