RIP Bruce Sutter
 

One of the Cubs and Cards greats

Just 69 years old.

Attended the 82 Series games in St Louis. Brewers had Fingers and some HR hitters. Cardinals had very little power. Whitey ball. Of all people Darryl Porter ended up MVP. Did he go in Hall as Cub or Cardinal ( I think he also pitched for Braves)

Too young. That split-fingered fastball really made his career. He was pictured as a Cardinal on his HOF plaque.

He left baseball early too, was done at 33 I recall. I think of him as a Cub first.

A key, but often forgotten, participant in the famous Ryne Sandberg game at Wrigley, giving up game tying homers to Ryno in both the 9th and 10th innings. Is that the only example of a pitcher getting two blown saves in the same game?

Feared closure an epitome of 80's Baseball..

That game was a Saturday afternoon. I was there, drove to Chicago from Cincinnati. We parked in someone's front yard (he was selling space), walked to Wrigley, stood in line at the ticket window, when it was my turn I asked for 4 tickets, he looked at me and said "the game is sold out." Stunned, I regrouped and looked at him, he said I could get 4 SRO seats... standing room only.

I hadn't driven for hours for nothing, we got 4 SRO tickets. Stood in right field, upper deck, behind the seating, for 7 innings. Finally went over to left field and found seats.

While standing, I was beside an older fellow who was talking to his grandson. He spoke softly, instructlively, and only between pitches. About the 3rd inning, maybe, I started a slow paced conversation with him. He was from New York and was taking his Chicago grandson to a ballgame. He knew quite a bit about baseball. He seemed reverent and respectful of the game's history. He'd seen ballgames from back when St. Louis was the farthest west the teams were. I asked him who his favorite team was... I can still see the side of his face as he gazed out across the grass of Wrigley... "The Giants," he said; "the New York Giants." And he didn't have to say that 50 years later he'd still not forgiven them for moving to San Francisco.

I'm gonna go look for that ticket stub...

He was the dominant closer for several years. I can still see those pitches go about 55 feet toward the plate, and the bottom falls out. Bruce was a substantial reason the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series. Prayers for his family.

Great story and thanks for sharing

May he RIP

Warm memories, great beard. My favorite Bruce Sutter card from the 1982 Donruss set.


https://images.footballfanatics.com/...pg?_hv=2&w=900

Alright! Found a few things I wasn't hunting for, but here's 2 ticket stubs that are on point...

The game mentioned above, Cubs win 12-11 in 11 innings. Cubs get a run in the bottom of the 9th to tie, both teams get 2 runs in the 10th, Cubs get a run in the bottom of the 11th to win. LaRussa (with somewhat missed sarcasm), declared Ryne Sandberg the best player ever, or something to that effect.

Sandberg 5 for 6, 2 HR, 7 RBIs

McGee 4 for 6, 2 HR, 6 RBIs

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1665798150

And I saw this game, with a story that I'll spare Net54 It's a 2 beer story.

But Sutter won his only World Series game victory this night, 5-4 over Milwaukee, getting St Louis in position to win the World Championship. This was Darrell Porter's 6th inning wrong field double to left field off of Don Sutton.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1665798529

That was an exciting night.

Ahhh.. the Sandberg game.

As an employee of the Cubs this was the date I knew, as Harry Carey put it "the good Lord wanted the Cubs to win".

The team seemed to win nearly every home game and there was always a feeling that we were going to win allot of games that season. After being in the park for the Sandberg game and witnessing the incredible energy and excitement in the old ball park that day, I just somehow knew that the Cubs were going to the playoffs that year.

Now if we were only allowed to host all three games of the playoffs that we were supposed to be allowed to have, there is no doubt in my mind we would have been in the World Series.

RIP Mr. Sutter. I interacted with him many times and he was always gracious and approachable.