BRUCE SUTTER

In addition to his impressive numbers as a closer, Bruce Sutter pioneered the split-fingered fastball, a pitch which is still both controversial and dreaded. He was not just another closer, nor a flash-in-the pan like so many temporarily great closers have been: he averaged 25 saves a season over a 12 year period. He won a Cy Young award in 1979 and finished in the top 10 in MVP balloting six times in eight years--no one, not Eckersley, nor Lee Smith, neither Rob Nenn nor John Wetteland, has come even close to that.

Closers rarely notch 100 innings any more but Sutter had five seasons with 100 or more innings and a sixth with 99. He had huge hands and excellent control, regularly fanning three times as many as he walked. From 1984 until his retirement in '88, he never uncorked a wild pitch.

Howard Bruce Sutter debuted with the Cubs in 1976. Then 23, he saved 10 saves in 52 appearances and became the chief of the Cubs' bullpen for the next five seasons. In '77 he had 26 saves and 75 innings pitched by the All Star game, but he pulled a muscle right before the mid-Summer Classic and pitched only 32 more innings that year.

In '78 he saved 27 games for the fifth place Cubs, then won the Cy the following year with 37 saves and a 2.23 ERA.

He again led the league in saves in 1980 and made his fourth straight All Star squad, but it was his action the winter before that season that had his name in the newspapers. He was one of the first to file for arbitration, an act considered poor form for a player with only three full seasons in. He asked for 700 grand, twice what the Cubs offered, and the arbitrator sided with Sutter. Owners despised his pluck, because now young players could compare themselves to veterans. Although they denied the arbitration controversy was the reason, the Cubs dealt him to the Cards mid-season 1980.

He starred with the Cards for four years, leading the league in saves three more times. In 1982, when the Cards were World Champs, he won one game and saved another in both the playoffs and World Series. Sutter set a record with 45 saves in 1984, but the Cards were in the dumps. He tested the market and signed with the Braves. He was momentarily the highest paid player in the game, inking a six year, $10 million deal. Knowing that his career could end any time, he agreed to have his contract configured so that he was paid seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars each of those six years; the rest went into an insurance fund that was structured in such a way that he would make a million a year for thirty years, starting in 1991; he still has twenty years remaining on the plan at a million per.

Good thing, too. He saved 23 games for the '85 Braves but began having shoulder problems. He missed most of 1986 and all of '87. He came back in 1988 and saved 12 games by the All Star game. But his arm was worn out, a fact that was noticed by those who preached against the still controversial split-fingered fastball. He saved only two more games that year and hung up his spikes following the 1988 season.