Different pitch suited Sutter
He owes his spot in Hall to learning the split-finger
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Thirty-three years after his career appeared to be over before it barely had begun, Bruce Sutter will receive the ultimate tribute -- induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
When he's enshrined today, Sutter will become the first honoree whose name never appeared on a starting lineup card. And, as implausible as it might seem, the former ace reliever can thank an injury to his pitching arm for his good fortune.
Signed as a free agent by the Chicago Cubs and desperate to make it to the major leagues, before the start of the 1973 minor league season Sutter scheduled -- and paid for with his bonus money -- surgery on his right arm for a pinched nerve incurred while trying to learn how to throw a slider.
``I didn't think they would pay for the operation," said Sutter, who hurt his arm after only two minor league games. ``I thought if I told them I was hurt, I was gone."
He was unable to keep the operation a secret for long. Fred Martin, the Cubs' roving minor league pitching instructor, spotted the big scar on Sutter's elbow, then forever changed his life by teaching him to throw the split-fingered fastball.
Developed by righthander Roger Craig before he retired from the Phillies in 1966, the ``splitter" is a variation of the forkball that ``Bullet" Joe Bush popularized during his journeyman career from 1912-28 and Pittsburgh reliever Elroy Face took to new heights in the late 1950s and early 1960s in winning 22 straight games.
The splitter is thrown with the ball held between the index and middle fingers, and the thumb, placed underneath, pushes the ball out upon release, creating a vicious forward spin.
``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. I wouldn't be here without that pitch. My other stuff was A ball, AA at best. The split-finger made it equal."
Not once he mastered it.
Give the bearded guy they dubbed ``The Undertaker" a big edge there. Sutter's now-you-see-it-now-you-don't splitter looked like an ordinary fastball -- until it reached home plate. Then it plunged precipitously through the strike zone out of harm's way, leaving bewildered batters flailing at nothing but air.
``He used it like nobody else was ever able to use it. He brought an air of confidence," said Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, Sutter's former teammate on the St. Louis Cardinals. ``When he came in, the game was over. He was that good."
Three-hundred-saves-in-12-seasons good.
