Sutter’s Cy Young Award completes incredible comeback

On Nov. 7, 1979, Sutter was named the winner of the National League Cy Young Award. The Cubs’ ace, who saved a big league-best 37 games that season, became the second NL reliever – and the third overall – to win a Cy Young Award. His 37 saves tied for the top total in NL history at that time, one behind the MLB record of 38 set by the Tigers’ John Hiller in 1973.

Sutter, who was 6-6 with a 2.22 ERA in 62 games, edged the Astros’ Joe Niekro in the voting 72-66. Sutter received 10 first-place votes compared to nine for Niekro, who went 21-11 with a 3.00 ERA.

“I was shocked. I really thought Joe Niekro would get it,” Sutter told the Associated Press. “When you win an award like this it’s not really one man, but the entire team.”

A fastball pitcher as an amateur, Sutter was unable to sign with the Senators in 1970 because he had not yet graduated from high school. He pitched on semi-pro teams around his home in Lancaster, Pa., before the Cubs signed him as an amateur free agent on Sept. 9, 1971.

An arm injury, however, nearly ended Sutter’s career. When he reported to Spring Training in 1973, Sutter’s fastball no longer had its former speed.

But coach Fred Martin taught Sutter the splitter, which imparts forward spin on a traditional fastball, causing it to drop when it approaches home plate.

By 1976, Sutter had made the big leagues – going 6-3 with a 2.70 ERA in 52 games.

“The next relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award,” said Darold Knowles during Spring Training of 1977, “will be this guy from Chicago.”

In 1977, Sutter saved 31 games, going 7-3 with a 1.34 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 107.1 innings.

“Trying to hit Bruce Sutter,” Pirates catcher Ed Ott told United Press International, “is like trying to hit a marble rolling off a table at 95 miles per hour.”