RetroSimba

(Updated March 5, 2023)

After getting caught breaking the rules in a game at St. Louis, Don Sutton and the Dodgers denied, covered up and threatened to sue. The National League caved.

On July 14, 1978, Sutton, the Dodgers’ ace, was ejected by umpire Doug Harvey for pitching a defaced baseball against the Cardinals.

The punishment for such a violation included a 10-day suspension, but National League president Chub Feeney opted not to take that disciplinary action after getting a visit from Sutton’s lawyer.

Under suspicion

A right-hander, Sutton was a gifted pitcher who consistently achieved double-digit season win totals.

He also had a reputation for doctoring the ball. The Cardinals accused him of throwing a spitball the first time they faced him his rookie season. Ten years later, the Cardinals’ Lou Brock implied Sutton used Vaseline to make his pitches dart and dip. Reds manager Sparky Anderson complained Sutton routinely broke the rules by scuffing the ball.

Scuffing “makes the ball unpredictable,” Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s like a dry spitball.”

On June 8, 1977, in a game versus the Cubs, Sutton was ejected for the first time. Bill Buckner, an ex-Dodger, was batting against Sutton when he asked plate umpire Bruce Froemming to inspect the ball. Cubs manager Herman Franks joined in, requesting a search of Sutton. Umpires obliged, but found nothing.

Before delivering his next pitch, Sutton knelt on the mound and belligerently rubbed the ball in the dirt, the Los Angeles Times reported. Dick Stello, umpiring at third, asked for the ball. Sutton fired it low and hard, and the ball skimmed past Stello and into left field.

Froemming started out to the mound to confront Sutton. “His face was red and his veins were throbbing,” Sutton told the Los Angeles Times. “I called him a fat, gutless, little jackass.”

Sutton was ejected. Boxscore

Finding evidence

A year later, Sutton, 33, was seeking his 200th career win in a Friday night start for the Dodgers at Busch Memorial Stadium. The Cardinals had the worst record (35-53) in the league and the Dodgers were defending champions.

Early in the game, either in the second or third, Jerry Crawford, umpiring at first, looked at the ball after the Cardinals had made the last out of the inning. Crawford showed it to crew chief Doug Harvey and said, “Doug, this ball has been defaced,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Harvey told Crawford to hold onto the ball.

In the sixth, after Keith Hernandez lined out to center fielder Bill North to end the inning, North rolled the ball toward the infield. Harvey, umpiring at second, picked up the ball and saw it was defaced.

According to Harvey, “the ball had an identical type of scuff mark” as the one Crawford showed him a few innings earlier, the Los Angeles Times noted.

Harvey went to Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and said, “Someone is fooling with the baseball.”

“I told him if the pitcher pitched another defaced ball I would eject him,” Harvey recalled to The Sporting News.

You’re out

In the seventh, the Cardinals’ Mike Tyson flied out to right fielder Rick Monday for the third out of the inning. As the Dodgers left the field, Harvey called for the ball. He saw the same scuff mark in a similar spot as the other two balls.

There was, Harvey told the Los Angeles Times, “a roughness on the ball almost in exactly the same spot on all three. It was enough of a scuff to alter the flight of the ball.”

Harvey ordered the Dodgers to return to the field and ejected Sutton. He declared Sutton’s last pitch to Tyson a ball and told Tyson to get back into the batter’s box.

Lance Rautzhan relieved Sutton and got Tyson to again fly out to Monday in right.

The Cardinals, ahead, 2-1, when Sutton was tossed, scored twice against rookie Bob Welch in the eighth and won, 4-1, behind Pete Vuckovich’s three-hitter. Boxscore

Reasonable doubt?

In the clubhouse, Sutton told the Post-Dispatch, “I’m suing Harvey, the National League and whoever runs the umpiring for depriving me of my rights to earn a living as a pitcher.”

The Dodgers claimed the scuff marks on the balls were caused by the AstroTurf.

“It’s like bouncing a leather basketball on asphalt,” Rick Monday told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s what happens to a baseball on AstroTurf.”

Lasorda said Sutton “did absolutely nothing to the ball.”

Technically, Lasorda may have been correct. Post-Dispatch columnist Bob Broeg reported a Cardinals player suggested a Dodgers infielder concealed in his glove a piece of sandpaper with which to scuff the baseball for Sutton.

Harvey told the Post-Dispatch, “I want to make it clear I’m not saying Sutton was doing it. I’m just saying it was Sutton who was pitching a defaced baseball.”

The Post-Dispatch noted that because all three balls were defaced in the same area and in the same manner “it hardly could be a matter of coincidence.”

“I was three-fourths sure Sutton was doing it,” Harvey told The Sporting News.

Backing down

Sutton was represented by Ed Hookstratten, an attorney whose celebrity client list ranged from entertainers Elvis Presley and Joey Bishop to broadcasters Tom Brokaw and Vin Scully. Hookstratten was the husband of actress Patricia Crowley, who starred in the TV series “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

Hookstratten met Feeney at the National League office in New York and presented the artificial turf theory, The Sporting News reported.

“They didn’t have a case,” Hookstratten said. “Those artificial fields are so tough on the ball that everyone is throwing doctored pitches.”

Hookstratten phoned Sutton and said, “I met with Mr. Feeney. You’re not suspended. Keep your mouth shut and I’ll talk to you later.”

On July 17, three days after Sutton was ejected, Feeney ruled there was insufficient evidence for a suspension. “The action taken by the umpires was proper … but no further disciplinary action appears appropriate at this time,” Feeney said.

In his Post-Dispatch column, Broeg wrote, “Feeney fumbled.”

The beat goes on

The next night, July 18, Sutton started against the Pirates at Pittsburgh. He wore a T-shirt with the words, “Not Guilty,” under his uniform jersey. Sutton pitched a six-hitter and got the win, No. 200 for his career. Boxscore

Sutton joined Don Drysdale as the only pitchers with 200 wins as Dodgers. “When you talk about him, you’re talking about durability, consistency and dependability,” Sutton said. “I want to be thought of in that light.”

(In the book “The Head Game,” Drysdale told writer Roger Kahn, “I threw a good spitball. When I wet the ball and kept my fingers on the smooth part, the bottom would drop out of the pitch when it reached the plate. A pretty good fastball that falls off the table.”)

A month later, Sutton again made headlines when, in an interview with the Washington Post, he said Reggie Smith, not Steve Garvey, was the Dodgers’ best player. When Garvey confronted Sutton about it in the clubhouse before a game against the Mets, they argued and got into a fight.

The rough-and-tumble Dodgers went on to win the 1978 National League pennant.

Sutton ranks as the Dodgers’ franchise leader in career wins, strikeouts, shutouts and innings pitched.

Sutton and Harvey both were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Don Sutton pitched some gems against the Cardinals, but they deprived him of the win he wanted most.

Sutton was a consistent winner. He is tied with Nolan Ryan for 14th all-time in wins (324). He had 18 regular-season wins versus the Cardinals, including seven shutouts. Sutton came up empty, though, when he faced them in the 1982 World Series.

A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sutton died on Jan. 18, 2021, at 75. 

Rookie success

After graduating from high school in Pensacola, Fla., Sutton, a right-hander, signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent at age 19 in 1964. Two years later, he was part of a Dodgers starting rotation with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.

On June 2, 1966, Sutton faced the Cardinals for the first time. He pitched 6.2 scoreless innings at St. Louis and got the win. Boxscore

“He’s the most developed young pitcher I’ve ever seen,” Dodgers reliever Bob Miller, a former Cardinal, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He has a good idea of what he’s going to do every pitch.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Sutton threw a fastball, slider and curve. The curve was delivered at three different speeds. Cardinals batters Curt Flood and Bob Skinner said Sutton also threw a spitter. For the rest of his 23-year career in the majors, Sutton faced allegations of doctoring the ball.

Old school

In 1968, when the Cardinals were National League champions for the second consecutive year, Sutton was 3-1 with a 1.82 ERA against them.

Two years later, the Cardinals got one of their most satisfying wins against Sutton.

On Aug. 28, 1970, at Los Angeles, Sutton and Cardinals rookie Jerry Reuss were locked in a scoreless duel for eight innings. In the ninth, Joe Torre hit a home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 victory. Boxscore

Two weeks earlier, Sutton had been rocked for six runs in two innings in a start at St. Louis. Jose Cardenal and Dal Maxvill had key hits against him.

When Sutton faced the Cardinals again at Dodger Stadium, he hit Cardenal in the hand with a pitch in the first inning. In the second, Maxvill hit the dirt to avoid being struck by Sutton’s fastball.

Reuss retaliated, throwing a pitch behind Sutton and at the level of his head. Sutton found his control after that.

In the ninth, Torre led off and worked the count to 3-and-2. Sutton threw a fastball into the heart of the strike zone and Torre walloped it over the wall in center.

“I was trying to keep from walking Torre and I was trying not to give him anything good to hit,” Sutton said. “That’s a tough situation.”

For Torre, who arrived in the majors 10 years earlier, it was just the third home run he hit at Dodger Stadium. The others came against Koufax and Drysdale.

Torre hit five home runs versus Sutton in his career.

Good stuff

Sutton was 3-0, with two shutouts, and a 1.33 ERA against the Cardinals in 1976.

The Dodgers and Mets were in serious talks during spring training that year about a trade of Sutton for Tom Seaver, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Mets backed away when they and Seaver agreed on contract terms.

On April 29, 1976, Sutton pitched a five-hit shutout against the Cardinals at Los Angeles. It gave him 41 career shutouts, one more than Koufax. Boxscore

Asked how Sutton was able to stop a Cardinals lineup with nine left-handed batters, slugger Reggie Smith told the Post-Dispatch, “When you have good stuff, it doesn’t matter who you’ve got in there.”

Smith’s teammate, Lou Brock, countered, “Yeah, he’s good as long as he has the Vaseline pitch going. He threw me a good one.”

Two weeks later, at St. Louis, Sutton pitched another five-hit shutout. Boxscore

Sutton’s third win against the 1976 Cardinals was an unusual one for him. In the Dodgers’ last game before the all-star break, manager Walter Alston asked Sutton whether he could pitch in relief that afternoon at St. Louis. Sutton hadn’t made a relief appearance in five years. “What could I say except, ‘OK, Skip,’ ” Sutton recalled.

Sutton entered the game in the seventh, pitched three innings and got the win, his first as a reliever since 1968. Boxscore

Series showdowns

On July 14, 1978, Sutton, trying for his 200th career win, was ejected from a game against the Cardinals at St. Louis. Umpire Doug Harvey tossed Sutton “for pitching a defaced baseball.” Harvey had three scuffed baseballs as evidence. Boxscore

Sutton became a free agent after the 1980 season and signed with the Astros. They traded him to the Brewers in August 1982. On the final day of the regular season, Sutton beat the Orioles, clinching a division title for the Brewers. He also got a win in the American League Championship Series versus the Angels.

The Brewers advanced to play the Cardinals in the World Series. They won the opener, 10-0, and started Sutton against rookie John Stuper in Game 2 at St. Louis. Sutton had leads of 3-0 and 4-2, but the Cardinals tied the score on Darrell Porter’s two-run double in the sixth. Sutton was lifted and the Cardinals went on to win. Boxscore and Video

Asked by the Post-Dispatch about Porter’s key hit, Sutton replied, “A good piece of hitting. That’s why he is so well-respected by those of us who stand in the middle of the mound.”

The Brewers won two of the next three, giving them a chance to clinch the championship in Game 6 at St. Louis. The matchup again was Sutton versus Stuper.

With the Dodgers, Sutton played for four league champions (1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978) but none won a World Series crown. At 37, he finally could be part of a World Series champion if he beat the Cardinals in Game 6.

“Nothing in my life comes close in magnitude to this game,” Sutton told the Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals made it a blowout. Porter and Keith Hernandez each hit a two-run home run against Sutton. He gave up seven runs before being lifted with one out in the fifth. Stuper pitched a four-hitter and the Cardinals won, 13-1. Boxscore and Video

“He wasn’t vintage Sutton,” said Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr. “He was up in the strike zone a lot. He has to pitch to spots.”

Sutton told the Post-Dispatch, “I had good stuff, but bad location. I have no excuse.”

Years later, for the book “Where Have You Gone ’82 Brewers,” Sutton said, “When I got to St. Louis, I was out of gas … There wasn’t a whole lot left. That’s why I always said I wish I could have given Milwaukee younger innings in the World Series.”

Sutton continued to pitch until he was 43. His last season was in 1988 with the Dodgers. They released him in August and he was a spectator when they won the World Series championship in October.