Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton dies at age 75
The most durable link in the long chain of Dodger pitching greats has died.
The winningest pitcher in Dodgers history who went on to a long broadcasting career, Don Sutton died at age 75 on Tuesday morning at his home in Rancho Mirage after a long battle with cancer. Sutton’s son, Daron (a former member of the broadcast crews for the Angels and Milwaukee Brewers), announced his father’s passing on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.
“Today we lost a great ballplayer, a great broadcaster and, most importantly a great person,” said Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten in statement released by the team.
Don Sutton made his major league debut with the Dodgers in 1966, starting the third game of the season for the defending World Series champions and going 12-12 with a 2.99 ERA as a 21-year-old. By the time he left the Dodgers as a free agent following the 1980 season, Sutton had won more games (233), made more starts (533), pitched more innings (3,816-1/3) and struck out more batters (2,696) than any other pitcher in franchise history.
But Sutton wasn’t done at age 35. The right-hander pitched eight more seasons with the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland A’s and the Angels, finally returning to the Dodgers to make 16 more starts at age 43 in 1988.
Sutton won 13 games for the A’s in 1985 before getting moved to the Angels in a post-trade-deadline waiver deal.
The durable Sutton never missed a start due to injury and pitched 200 innings or more in 20 of his first 21 seasons, a stretch interrupted only by the strike-shortened 1981 season. No other pitcher in baseball history recorded 20 seasons of 200 innings or more or 20 seasons with at least 30 starts.
Sutton finished his 23-year career having made 756 starts. Only Cy Young (815) and Nolan Ryan (773) made more in baseball history. He also ranked seventh all-time in innings pitched (5,282-1/3) and strikeouts (3,574). A four-time All-Star, Sutton had a career record of 324-256 andanERAof3.26.
METS FIRE NEW GENERAL MANAGER >> Major League Baseball plans to investigate former New York Mets general manager Jared Porter for sending unsolicited, inappropriate text messages to a female reporter, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Tuesday.
Mets owner Steven Cohen said earlier in the day that he fired Porter following an ESPN report on Monday that Porter sent explicit, unsolicited texts and images to the reporter while he was the director of professional scouting for the Chicago Cubs, citing a copy of the text history the publication had obtained.
“We have terminated Jared Porter this morning,” Cohen said in a statement on Twitter. “In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it. There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.”
The informed source provided no more detail on the MLB investigation.
Porter, 41, had joined the Mets only a month ago.
Golf
WOODS HAS 5TH BACK SURGERY, TO MISS TWO EVENTS >> Tiger Woods has suffered a setback with his back, disclosing Tuesday that he recently had a fifth surgery that will keep him from starting the year until after the West Coast Swing on the PGA Tour.
Woods will not play next week in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, which he has won seven times, most recently in 2013. He also will miss the Genesis Invitational on Feb. 18-21 at Riviera CC, where he serves as tournament host.
In a statement from his TGR Foundation, which Woods also tweeted, he did not say when he had the microdiscetomy surgery. It was to remove a pressurized disc fragment that was giving him nerve pain during the PNC Championship last month that he played with 11-month-old son Charlie.
Men’s college basketball
TIGHTER SCHEDULE FOR MARCH MADNESS>> That much-anticipated opening Thursday of March Madness will belong to the play-in teams, part of a scrambled and modestly condensed schedule for the 2021 tournament released Tuesday.
The coronavirus pandemic forced the NCAA to move the entire 67game tournament to Indiana, which means the schedule doesn’t have to be built with travel concerns in mind.
The so-called “First Four” — two games pitting the last four at-large teams in the field and another two featuring the lowest-rated conference champions — will take place on Thursday, March 18.
That day typically would have marked the start of play in the main bracket. Instead, the first two full days of action are now scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 19-20, with the round of 32 taking place Sunday and Monday, March 21-22.
The Sweet 16 will run Saturday and Sunday, March 27-28, with none of the games scheduled to overlap, as they often do when they take place on the second Thursday and Friday nights of the tournament. Those winners will face off in the Elite Eight on the following Monday and Tuesday evenings.
The Final Four is still scheduled for Saturday, April 3 and Monday, April 5.
OREGON STATE ENDS USC’S STREAK >> Ethan Thompson and Jarod Lucas both scored 13 points, and host Oregon State rode a stifling defensive effort to snap USC’s six-game winning streak with a 58-56 victory.
The Beavers (7-5, 3-3 Pac-12) held the Trojans (11-3, 5-2) to 41.7 percent shooting and limited USC leading scorer Evan Mobley to 12 points.
Oregon State did not make a field goal in the final 3:13 and USC did not score in the last 2:19.
Women’s college basketball
UCONN’S AURIEMMA PASSES SUMMITTINWINS>> Third-ranked UConn, playing for the first time in 10 days, routed Butler 103-35 on Tuesday night. The win was coach Geno Auriemma’s 1,099th at UConn, moving him past late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, into second place on the all-time list behind Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer.
College football
ALABAMA QB JONES WINS MANNING AWARD >> Alabama’s Mac Jones was named the winner of the 2020 Manning Award, presented to the nation’s top quarterback. He guided the No. 1 Crimson Tide (13-0) to the college football playoff national championship, completing 77.4 % of his passes for 4,500 yards with 41 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Jones, who finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting (won by teammate DeVonta Smith), declared for the NFL draft last week.
The other finalists included Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, Notre Dame’s Ian Book and Florida’s Kyle Trask.
Motorsports
WOMEN-LED TEAM GEARS UP FOR INDY 500 >>
Women are poised to return to the Indianapolis 500 starting grid this year with a female-led ownership group and driver that could herald a new era in IndyCar racing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway said.
Paretta Autosport will be spearheaded by automotive and motorsport executive Beth Paretta with 2010 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Simona De Silvestro back in the cockpit.
Put together with the help of IndyCar’s Race for Equality and Change initiative, Paretta Autosport will also benefit from a technical alliance with powerhouse Team Penske and billionaire owner Roger Penske.