Sutter, "Bruce" (Howard Bruce)
Baseball
b. Jan. 8, 1953, Lancaster, PA
A pioneer of the split-fingered fastball, a pitch that breaks sharply down just as it reaches home plate, Sutter was one of the premier relief pitchers in baseball during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
He entered the major leagues with the NL's Chicago Cubs in 1976. From 1977 through 1985, he had 21 or more saves each year. Sutter won the league's Cy Young Award in 1979, when he had a league-leading 37 saves and a 2.22 ERA, with 110 strikeouts in 101 innings.
Sutter, who signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a free agent in 1981, also led the league in saves with 28 in 1980, 25 in 1981, 36 in 1982, and 45 in 1984. He had a 1-0 record and 2 saves when the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers in a seven-game World Series in 1982.
In 1985, Sutter went to the Atlanta Braves. He missed much of the 1986 season and all of the 1987 season with arm problems. After recording 14 saves for Atlanta in 1988, the problems recurred and he was forced to retire.
Sutter was selected to the National League All-Star six times. He was the winning pitcher in two of the games and he saved two others. He's the only pitcher in the Baseball Hall of Fame who never started a major-league game.