Dodgers Hall of Fame ironman pitcher Don Sutton dies at 75

Don Sutton acknowledges applause at the conclusion of a ceremony to retire his number on Aug. 14, 1998. Sutton, the Hall of Fame pitcher whose uniform number was the last one retired by the Dodgers, died at his Rancho Mirage home Tuesday after what a Hall of Fame statement said was “a long battle with cancer.” He was 75. But I would like to think I got everything I could get out of what I was gifted with.” Sutton, a four-time All-Star, was so treasured for his reliability that Commissioner Rob Manfred saluted him Tuesday as “a model of durability.” Sutton described himself as an “unspectacular grinder,” yet he won the most games for a franchise that has employed Koufax, Drysdale, Don Newcombe, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser and Clayton Kershaw. On Tuesday, former Dodgers general manager Fred Claire remembered a time early in Sutton’s career, when manager Walter Alston laid out his plan to a press corps skeptical of how long the team could stick with the struggling young pitcher. “A world championship,” he said in 1978, “is the last of my childhood dreams.” Sutton had not pitched well for the Angels in 1987, but Claire brought him back to the Dodgers for a farewell season at age 43 in 1988.