page_title: Don Sutton
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Don Sutton / MLB playing career / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: A baseball card of Don Sutton from the 1971 Ticketron Los Angeles Dodgers set.
context_page_description: Donald Howard Sutton is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for 23 major league seasons as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, and California Angels. He won a total of 324 games, 58 of them shutouts with five of them one-hitters and 10 two-hitters, seven which were shutouts, and he is seventh on baseball's all-time strikeout list with 3,574.
  Sutton was born in Clio, Alabama. He attended high school and community college in Florida before entering professional baseball. After a year in the minor leagues, Sutton joined the Dodgers. Beginning in 1966, he was in the team's starting pitching rotation with Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen. 16 of Sutton's 23 MLB seasons were spent with the Dodgers. He registered only one 20-win season, but earned 10 or more wins in every season except 1983 and 1988.
  Sutton entered broadcasting after his retirement as a player. He has worked in this capacity for several teams, the majority being with the Atlanta Braves. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.
context_section_description: After playing for the Sioux Falls Packers in South Dakota, Sutton entered the major leagues at the age of 21. Sutton's major league debut came with the Dodgers on April 14, 1966, the same day that future 300-game winner Greg Maddux was born. On the 1966 Dodgers, Sutton was the fourth starting pitcher in a rotation that included Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen. He struck out 209 batters that season, which was the highest strikeout total for a rookie since 1911.
  Sutton was selected to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game four times in the 1970s. The 1974 Dodgers made the postseason after winning 102 games during the regular season. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs and Sutton accounted for two of the team's three wins. They lost the 1974 World Series four games to one, with Sutton earning the only win for the team. In 1976, Sutton had his best major league season, finishing the year with a 21–10 win-loss record. He earned a complete game win in the 1977 playoffs, followed by a 1–0 record in two appearances in that year's World Series, which the team lost to the Yankees.
  In August 1978, Sutton captured media attention after a physical altercation with teammate Steve Garvey. Sutton had criticized what he thought was excessive media attention paid to Garvey, saying that Reggie Smith was really the team's best player. When Garvey confronted Sutton about the comments before a game against the Mets, the men came to blows and had to be separated by teammates and team officials. The team returned to the postseason that year. Sutton had a 15–11 record during the regular season, but he struggled in the postseason as the Dodgers lost the World Series to New York again. In 17 postseason innings that year, Sutton gave up 14 earned runs.
caption: Don Sutton circa 1971
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