WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.339 So imagine you're 19 years old. OK. And you're 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.720 lying in this stark, you know, sterile hospital 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.759 room. This is the early 70s. And you just woke 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:14.400 up from a major surgery on your right arm. Oh, 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:16.940 man. Yeah. And you try to move it and there is 00:00:16.940 --> 00:00:19.500 just nothing like the zip, the power, the whole 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:21.899 physical mechanism that actually got a major 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:23.440 league baseball team to take a chance on you. 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:25.920 It just completely gone. Right. So as far as 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:29.519 you know, your career is basically dead before 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.340 it even starts. And honestly, in like almost 00:00:32.340 --> 00:00:35.060 any other timeline, that is exactly where the 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:38.060 story ends. It's just a minor footnote about 00:00:38.060 --> 00:00:40.920 a teenage prospect who blew out his arm. Exactly. 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:44.119 Yeah. But here's the profound contradiction at 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:46.780 the center of this story. That catastrophic clinical 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.659 breakdown, it was actually the exact prerequisite 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:52.659 for a completely historic career. And that is 00:00:52.659 --> 00:00:54.840 exactly what we're unpacking today. So our mission 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:57.679 on this deep dive is to basically trace the chronological 00:00:57.679 --> 00:00:59.899 journey of Bruce Sutter. We're following this 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:02.780 kid from a small town in Pennsylvania who suffers 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:05.780 this devastating pinched nerve. only to, you 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:08.680 know, stumble into a revolutionary pitch, basically, 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:10.579 because he physically couldn't throw normally 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:12.879 anymore. Yeah, out of pure necessity. Right. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:15.680 And he goes on to redefine the entire concept 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:18.060 of the bullpen closer. And he actually becomes 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:20.599 the first pitcher in history to enter the Baseball 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.560 Hall of Fame without ever starting a single major 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:26.379 league game. Which is wild. And to really grasp 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:28.819 the magnitude of that, we have to understand 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:31.519 that this isn't just a biography of one man. 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.700 It's really the biography of a man. a massive 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:37.180 tactical shift in professional sports. Oh, for 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:39.379 sure. Like, his unique trajectory actually forced 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:42.359 managers to fundamentally change how they deployed 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:44.180 their rosters. Yeah. He didn't just play baseball. 00:01:44.459 --> 00:01:46.760 He literally changed the geometry of the Final 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:49.180 Linux. Right, but... But before he changed the 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:51.739 game, he was just a kid in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 00:01:51.859 --> 00:01:55.159 born in 1953. He was the fifth of six children. 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:58.019 His dad managed a local farm bureau warehouse. 00:01:58.420 --> 00:02:01.480 And by all accounts, young Bruce was one of those 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:04.599 infuriatingly natural multi -sport prodigies. 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:07.739 Oh, yeah, the kind of athlete who just dominates 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:11.159 whatever field or court he walks onto. I mean, 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.680 at Donegal High School, he was the quarterback 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:17.560 and the captain of the football team. Wow. Yeah, 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:19.639 he capped to the basketball team to a district 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:22.280 championship. He won a county championship in 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.979 baseball. Just, you know, the total prototype 00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:28.740 of an all -American athletic prospect. Right, 00:02:28.819 --> 00:02:31.560 which naturally is going to attract scouts. So 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.729 in 1970, the Washington senators draft him. But 00:02:34.729 --> 00:02:37.449 instead of signing, he opts to go to Old Dominion 00:02:37.449 --> 00:02:39.590 University. But that didn't really stick, right? 00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:41.669 No, not at all. The college route just didn't 00:02:41.669 --> 00:02:43.469 work out. He drops out pretty quickly, heads 00:02:43.469 --> 00:02:45.430 back home to Pennsylvania, and just starts playing 00:02:45.430 --> 00:02:47.969 semi -pro bowl. OK. So it seems like the dream 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:51.389 is kind of fizzling out. But then in 1971, this 00:02:51.389 --> 00:02:54.830 Chicago Cubs scout named Ralph DeLillo spots 00:02:54.830 --> 00:02:56.969 him and signs him as an undrafted free agent. 00:02:57.009 --> 00:02:59.370 So he is starting from the absolute bottom rung 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:01.330 of the professional ladder here. Yeah, exactly. 00:03:01.389 --> 00:03:03.409 He pitches a handful of games in the Gulf Coast 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:07.229 League. and then that disaster we mentioned earlier 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:10.189 strikes. The arm injury. Yeah. He develops this 00:03:10.189 --> 00:03:13.590 severe pinched nerve in his throwing arm. It 00:03:13.590 --> 00:03:16.069 requires surgery, takes him out for an entire 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.990 year, and when he finally returns to the mound 00:03:18.990 --> 00:03:24.009 at age 20, the raw talent is just gone. Oh, man. 00:03:24.189 --> 00:03:26.449 His pitches are flat. They have no movement. 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:28.770 They have no speed. He is literally on the verge 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:31.270 of being released. OK, let me let me push back 00:03:31.270 --> 00:03:33.310 on this a bit because looking at it from just 00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:35.770 a purely business perspective, this makes no 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:38.650 sense. How do you mean? Well, minor league systems 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:41.039 have. hundreds of kids in them, right? If you 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:43.560 have an undrafted player who dropped out of college 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:46.379 and his arm is now structurally compromised, 00:03:46.780 --> 00:03:49.120 why would a major league organization bother 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:51.580 keeping him around? That's a fair question. Like, 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:53.699 why not just cut your losses and give that roster 00:03:53.699 --> 00:03:55.960 spot to a healthy kid? Right, that is the logical 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:58.580 assumption. But minor league systems, they also 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.919 function as laboratories. Oh, interesting. Yeah, 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:03.000 you have pitching instructors who are constantly 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.300 looking for a project, you know, a blank slate 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.939 to test theories on. And when a player is on 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:10.180 the brink of being cut, they are desperate enough 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:13.219 to try anything. So there was this minor league 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:15.840 pitching instructor named Fred Martin, and he 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.540 saw Sutter struggling and decided to teach him 00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:21.399 a highly unusual modification of a pitch known 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:23.639 as the forkball. Which becomes the legendary 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:26.060 split finger fastball. Exactly. But break down 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:28.560 the mechanics for us, because why couldn't just 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.060 anyone throw this? Well, it really just comes 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.550 down to sheer biology. To throw a split -finger 00:04:34.550 --> 00:04:37.589 fastball, you have to jam the baseball incredibly 00:04:37.589 --> 00:04:40.129 deep between your index and middle fingers. Right. 00:04:40.550 --> 00:04:43.290 And most humans simply cannot spread their fingers 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:45.949 wide enough to grip a baseball securely that 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:48.389 deep while also, you know, whipping their arm 00:04:48.389 --> 00:04:50.589 forward at professional speeds. But Sutter was 00:04:50.589 --> 00:04:53.589 a big guy with naturally massive hands. Yes. 00:04:54.029 --> 00:04:57.000 His anatomy was the unlocking mechanism. He could 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.360 grip the ball with his fingers split impossibly 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:02.279 wide and still throw it with the identical violent 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:05.120 arm motion of a regular fastball. Wow. Put yourself 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.600 on the batter's box, right? You see the pitcher's 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.199 arm speed and your brain instantly registers 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:12.060 a high -speed fastball coming right down the 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.120 middle. Okay. But because of how the ball is 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.939 wedged between those massive fingers, it comes 00:05:17.939 --> 00:05:20.279 out of the hand with almost zero backspin. And 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:22.319 without backspin to keep it gliding through the 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.560 air, gravity just takes over completely. The 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:26.709 bottom absolutely falls out. Right as the batter 00:05:26.709 --> 00:05:28.910 swings, the ball just dives straight down into 00:05:28.910 --> 00:05:31.670 the dirt. Hitters were swinging at a ghost, basically. 00:05:31.870 --> 00:05:34.189 That's incredible. Yeah, the pitch saved his 00:05:34.189 --> 00:05:36.389 career overnight. And there's this really vivid 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:39.670 anecdote in the sources from Mike Krukow, who 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:41.930 was pitching in the minors with him at the time. 00:05:42.410 --> 00:05:44.769 Krukow said he watched Sutter throw this new 00:05:44.769 --> 00:05:47.089 pitch and instantly, like just from seeing it 00:05:47.089 --> 00:05:49.930 once, knew Sutter was heading to the major leagues. 00:05:50.089 --> 00:05:53.339 Wow. It was that visually absurd. And the statistics 00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:55.740 completely support that immediate transformation. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.160 I mean, bouncing between Class A and Double A 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:02.220 in 1974 and 1975, he just becomes untouchable. 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:05.500 He leads his team in ERA and saves, and he actually 00:06:05.500 --> 00:06:08.220 helps win a Texas League pennant. So that dominant 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:11.180 minor league run kind of forces the Chicago Cubs 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:12.959 hand. They call them up to the big leagues by 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.519 May of 1976. Right. But because he now possessed 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:19.920 this singular unhittable weapon, they couldn't 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:21.720 just use him like a normal pitcher, could they? 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.740 No, not at all. This pitch actually catalyzed 00:06:25.740 --> 00:06:27.720 an evolution in how the bullpen was managed. 00:06:28.819 --> 00:06:32.000 because historically, relief pitchers were viewed 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.480 as secondary assets. Right, like the guys who 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:36.579 couldn't cut it as starters. Exactly. Failed 00:06:36.579 --> 00:06:38.980 starters or guys you just brought in to eat up 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:42.160 innings when a game was already a blowout. But 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.740 the Cubs' front office looked at setters' split 00:06:44.740 --> 00:06:47.500 finger and realized they had a surgical tool. 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:50.980 Okay. If they brought him in during the tightest, 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.680 highest leverage situations of a game, he could 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:56.100 just extinguish the threat entirely. And he proved 00:06:56.100 --> 00:06:59.699 that point perfectly in September of 1977 with 00:06:59.699 --> 00:07:01.939 an immaculate inning against the Montreal Expos. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.120 Oh, yeah. And for our listeners who might not 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.060 follow baseball super closely, an immaculate 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:08.120 inning means striking out all three batters in 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.560 a single inning on exactly nine pitches. Nine 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.100 pitches, nine strikes. It is statistically rarer 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:15.220 than a perfect game. Which is insane to think 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:18.550 about. It is. It's the ultimate showcase of a 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.389 pitcher completely paralyzing the opposition. 00:07:22.370 --> 00:07:24.029 Like, hitters knew the split finger was coming, 00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:26.889 but because it looked identical to a fastball 00:07:26.889 --> 00:07:29.689 to the last possible microsecond, their brains 00:07:29.689 --> 00:07:32.149 just couldn't process the drop in time. Wow. 00:07:32.470 --> 00:07:36.170 So his 1977 season was brilliant, but 1979 is 00:07:36.170 --> 00:07:38.209 when he just shattered all conventional wisdom. 00:07:38.410 --> 00:07:41.350 Oh yeah, the 1979 season is mind -boggling. He 00:07:41.350 --> 00:07:43.569 wins the Cy Young Award for being the league's 00:07:43.569 --> 00:07:46.449 top pitcher, which is an incredibly rare feat 00:07:46.449 --> 00:07:49.430 for a relief pitcher. Very rare. He won the Rolade's 00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:51.610 Relief Man Award and he tied the National League 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:55.470 record at the time with 37 saves. But let's clarify 00:07:55.470 --> 00:07:57.569 what a save meant in this era, though. A good 00:07:57.569 --> 00:08:00.629 point. Because if you watch baseball today, you 00:08:00.629 --> 00:08:03.790 know modern closers are treated like, well, fragile 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:06.170 porcelain. A manager brings them in for the ninth 00:08:06.170 --> 00:08:08.389 inning. They get three outs and they go ice their 00:08:08.389 --> 00:08:11.079 shoulder. That wasn't Sutter's job, was it? Not 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.680 even close. The concept of the modern one -in 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:16.360 enclosure simply did not exist back then. When 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:19.439 the Cubs had a lead they wanted to protect, they 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:21.959 didn't politely wait until the ninth inning to 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:25.720 deploy their best weapon. In fact, in 1979, the 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:27.819 Cubs specifically traded for another pitcher, 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:31.980 Dick Tidrow. Okay. And their entire organizational 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:35.419 strategy was to have Tidrow pitch the sixth and 00:08:35.419 --> 00:08:38.049 seventh innings. for the sole purpose of keeping 00:08:38.049 --> 00:08:40.269 Sutter fresh to pitch the eighth and the ninth. 00:08:40.350 --> 00:08:42.009 So wait, he's coming into the game in the eighth 00:08:42.009 --> 00:08:44.629 inning, often with runners already on base, having 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:46.610 to get out of a high -stress jam, and then he 00:08:46.610 --> 00:08:48.570 goes back out to pitch the entire ninth inning 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.590 as well? Frequently, yes. He was regularly throwing 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:53.889 two, sometimes three, innings to secure a single 00:08:53.889 --> 00:08:57.470 save. That is wild. The physical workload he 00:08:57.470 --> 00:08:59.710 carried is difficult for a modern baseball fan 00:08:59.710 --> 00:09:02.710 to even comprehend. Well, and that insane workload 00:09:02.710 --> 00:09:05.250 sets the stage for a massive transition in his 00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:08.539 career. In December of 1980, the Cubs trade him 00:09:08.539 --> 00:09:10.799 to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Leon 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.860 Durham and Ken Wrights. Why the change of scenery? 00:09:14.139 --> 00:09:16.740 Like, why the Cardinals? Well, the Cardinals, 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:19.580 led by their manager Whitey Herzog, they were 00:09:19.580 --> 00:09:22.100 intentionally building a very specific type of 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:25.139 team. They played in a massive stadium, so they 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:28.799 prioritized speed, elite defense, and exceptional 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:31.440 pitching over, you know, hitting home runs. OK, 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:34.360 that makes sense. And Herzog viewed Sutter as 00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:37.740 the ultimate anchor for that philosophy. If the 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:39.840 Cardinals could just scratch out a small lead 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.419 by the seventh inning, Sutter was the lock on 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:45.879 the vault. And that philosophy paid off spectacularly 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:48.799 in 1982. The Cardinals make it to the World Series, 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:51.740 and Sutter is just this immovable object at the 00:09:51.740 --> 00:09:54.259 back of the bullpen. Exactly. He earns two saves 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.600 in the series, and the defining image of his 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:58.899 entire career happens in game seven. Oh, the 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:01.080 strikeout. Yeah. He strikes out Gorman Thomas 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.440 of the Brewers with that devastating split finger 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:06.120 to clinch the championship, and his catcher just 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:08.299 sprints to the mound to jump into his arms. It's 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:11.399 an iconic baseball moment. But, you know, while 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:13.340 the pitching gets all the glory, the sources 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:16.379 highlight a moment in 1983 that proves he never 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:18.340 lost that high school athleticism we talked about. 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:20.840 Oh, I love this detail. Yeah. You rarely see 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:23.740 pitchers execute an unassisted pickoff, but Sutter 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:26.159 pulled it off brilliantly. Right. So Bill Madlock 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.360 of the Pirates is taking a huge lead off first 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:30.580 base. And the Cardinals first baseman, Keith 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:34.019 Hernandez, is actively talking to Madlock, completely 00:10:34.019 --> 00:10:36.879 distracting him. Meanwhile, Setter sees this, 00:10:37.100 --> 00:10:39.720 sprints entirely off the pitcher's mound, runs 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:42.879 all the way over to the baseline, and tags Madlock 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:45.879 out himself. It just shows incredible situational 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.679 awareness. It was a true testament to his sheer 00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:51.539 baseball instinct. But if we look at the following 00:10:51.539 --> 00:10:55.570 year, 1984, we see the absolute zenith of his 00:10:55.570 --> 00:10:59.850 career and also the underlying cause of his downfall. 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:02.669 Right, 1984. He tied the major league record 00:11:02.669 --> 00:11:05.570 that year with 45 saves. He was untouchable. 00:11:05.809 --> 00:11:07.610 But let's look at the usage rate. This number 00:11:07.610 --> 00:11:10.870 is staggering. He threw over 122 innings that 00:11:10.870 --> 00:11:13.590 year, entirely as a relief pitcher. Just unbelievable. 00:11:13.710 --> 00:11:15.210 To put that in perspective for our listeners, 00:11:15.429 --> 00:11:18.250 an elite closer today might throw 60 to 65 innings 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:21.350 in an entire season. Sutter essentially did double 00:11:21.350 --> 00:11:23.809 the work. And that wasn't an anomaly for him. 00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:27.049 It was one of five different seasons in his career 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.850 where he threw more than a hundred innings out 00:11:29.850 --> 00:11:33.870 of the bullpen. Wow. The manager, Whitey Herzog, 00:11:34.230 --> 00:11:37.330 practically revered him for it. Herzog even joked 00:11:37.330 --> 00:11:40.690 to Sutter once saying, you know, you've provided 00:11:40.690 --> 00:11:42.610 for your children, your grandchildren and your 00:11:42.610 --> 00:11:44.929 great grandchildren. If I get fired in July, 00:11:45.070 --> 00:11:47.029 will you take care of me and my wife? That's 00:11:47.029 --> 00:11:50.320 hilarious. But Herzog knew Sutter was about to 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:53.100 hit free agency heading into the 1985 season. 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:55.139 I mean, Sutter had achieved everything right. 00:11:55.220 --> 00:11:57.700 A Cy Young, a World Series, record breaking save 00:11:57.700 --> 00:12:01.120 numbers. Yep. But throwing 122 innings of relief 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:03.899 with a violent pitch like the split finger, I 00:12:03.899 --> 00:12:06.740 mean, that comes at a severe physical cost. Absolutely. 00:12:06.980 --> 00:12:09.139 People always compare a pitcher's arm to like 00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:11.179 a battery running out of juice, but I don't think 00:12:11.179 --> 00:12:13.179 that quite captures it. It's more like think 00:12:13.179 --> 00:12:15.820 about bending a metal paper clip back and forth. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.700 You can bend it a dozen times, and it holds its 00:12:18.700 --> 00:12:21.620 shape. But if you bend it at a harsh, unnatural 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:25.419 angle over 120 times in a few months, you create 00:12:25.419 --> 00:12:27.940 these invisible microfractures in the metal. 00:12:28.460 --> 00:12:30.879 The arm was structurally degrading. It was basically 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:33.220 a ticking time bomb. That's a great analogy. 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:36.259 But the Atlanta Braves, however, were desperate 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:38.240 enough to just ignore the ticking. And that leads 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:41.679 to this monster contract in December 1984. Sutter 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:43.679 signs with the Braves, partly because he liked 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:45.860 the scenery and respected Ted Turner and Dale 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:48.600 Murphy. The baseline numbers of the contract 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:52.409 are huge for the time. It was $4 .8 million over 00:12:52.409 --> 00:12:55.269 six years. But the deferred money is where it 00:12:55.269 --> 00:12:57.970 gets truly wild. Oh, the financial structuring 00:12:57.970 --> 00:13:01.049 is fascinating. They placed another $4 .8 million 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:04.009 into a deferred account, guaranteeing an interest 00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:08.070 rate of 13%. 13%. Yes. That structure meant the 00:13:08.070 --> 00:13:10.929 Braves would be paying him an estimated $1 .3 00:13:10.929 --> 00:13:14.570 million annually for 30 years after his plane 00:13:14.570 --> 00:13:17.279 contract ended. Wow. So they secured his family's 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.399 wealth for a generation just because they were 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:22.399 that desperate for a closer. Exactly. The sources 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:24.639 actually note that the entire Braves pitching 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.460 staff had a combined 49 saves the previous year. 00:13:28.779 --> 00:13:31.779 Sutter individually had 45. They paid him to 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:34.740 be a one man solution. But the paperclip finally 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.639 snapped. It did. The 100 plus inning seasons 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:40.039 caught up to him almost the moment he put on 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.960 an Atlanta uniform. In his first year there, 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:46.460 1985, his earned run average balloons up to 4 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:49.519 .48, meaning he is giving up runs at a vastly 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:52.480 higher rate. Right. He only manages 23 saves, 00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:55.000 and he starts complaining of a nerve impingement 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.519 in his right shoulder. And the cascading breakdowns 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:00.200 happen brutally fast after that. He undergoes 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.740 surgery on the shoulder in late 1985. He tries 00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:05.279 to mount a comeback in 1986, telling the press 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:07.059 and spring training that he feels great. Of course. 00:14:07.259 --> 00:14:09.299 But the velocity is just gone. The pitch has 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:12.039 lost its bite. By May, he's on the disabled list. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:16.279 By July, his season is over. Man. And early 1987 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:18.860 brings a third major surgery on his arm, this 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:20.879 time to remove deep scar tissue and attempt to 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:23.039 get the nerve to heal. He ends up missing the 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.860 entirety of the 1987 season. He attempts one 00:14:25.860 --> 00:14:29.039 final push in 1988, though. He pitches in 38 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.620 games, but his body just continues to rebel. 00:14:31.879 --> 00:14:34.059 He needs arthroscopic surgery on his knee in 00:14:34.059 --> 00:14:36.639 September. And finally in 1989, dealing with 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:40.320 a severely torn rotator cuff, he officially retires. 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:43.299 He walks away with exactly 300 career saves, 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:45.779 which at the time ranked as the third most in 00:14:45.779 --> 00:14:48.120 major league history. His peak was undeniably 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:51.970 historic, but his decline was rapid. And that 00:14:51.970 --> 00:14:54.330 created a massive dilemma for the baseball world. 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:56.850 How so? Well, how do you evaluate a player whose 00:14:56.850 --> 00:14:59.850 dominance burns so intensely, but whose overall 00:14:59.850 --> 00:15:02.669 career length was truncated by injury? Especially 00:15:02.669 --> 00:15:04.669 a player who only pitched the final innings of 00:15:04.669 --> 00:15:07.509 a game. Right, which brings us to his incredibly 00:15:07.509 --> 00:15:10.129 long wait for the Hall of Fame. It took him 13 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:12.129 years on the ballot before he was finally elected 00:15:12.129 --> 00:15:15.309 in 2006, securing just under 77 % of the vote. 00:15:15.370 --> 00:15:18.659 Yep. Why did the voters resist him for... Over 00:15:18.659 --> 00:15:20.799 a decade to understand the delay you really have 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.000 to dive into the psychology of the baseball writers 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:25.220 who vote for the Hall of Fame During the 90s 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:27.659 and early 2000s. There was this deeply ingrained 00:15:27.659 --> 00:15:31.259 cultural bias voters revered starting pitchers 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:34.840 who could throw 250 innings a year This specialized 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:37.429 closer was still viewed with A bit of suspicion, 00:15:37.929 --> 00:15:40.129 a lot of older writers still saw relief pictures 00:15:40.129 --> 00:15:42.429 fundamentally as guys who just weren't good enough 00:15:42.429 --> 00:15:45.190 to be starters. Oh, I see. So evaluating a picture 00:15:45.190 --> 00:15:46.970 who threw 100 innings of relief required them 00:15:46.970 --> 00:15:49.049 to completely shift their perspective on how 00:15:49.049 --> 00:15:51.470 value is created on a baseball team. They also 00:15:51.470 --> 00:15:53.870 knocked him because his early prime was spent 00:15:53.870 --> 00:15:57.690 on relatively low profile. Cubs teams, right? 00:15:57.690 --> 00:15:59.830 Yes. And his career didn't have that, you know, 00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:02.370 20 year longevity that voters usually demand. 00:16:02.649 --> 00:16:04.750 But when they finally broke through that bias, 00:16:05.029 --> 00:16:07.730 he made history as the very first pitcher ever 00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:09.669 inducted without starting a single game. And 00:16:09.669 --> 00:16:11.889 the validation really poured in. The St. Louis 00:16:11.889 --> 00:16:14.230 Cardinals immediately retired his number 42. 00:16:14.809 --> 00:16:16.889 And what's remarkable about that is number 42 00:16:16.889 --> 00:16:19.450 was universally retired across all of baseball 00:16:19.450 --> 00:16:22.289 to honor Jackie Robinson, meaning Sutter shares 00:16:22.289 --> 00:16:24.970 that exclusive honor in St. Louis. That is so 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:27.970 cool. And the 2006 induction ceremony in Cooperstown 00:16:27.970 --> 00:16:31.029 was deeply emotional. He was the only living 00:16:31.029 --> 00:16:33.490 major league player inducted that year, but he 00:16:33.490 --> 00:16:35.549 shared the stage with the posthumous induction 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:39.009 of 17 Negro League legends. Right. And during 00:16:39.009 --> 00:16:41.490 his speech, he actually broke down while speaking 00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:43.350 about teammates who had passed away. It was a 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:45.809 beautiful culmination. And it was augmented by 00:16:45.809 --> 00:16:47.789 teammates like Johnny Bench and Ozzie Smith, 00:16:48.149 --> 00:16:51.250 who sat in the crowd wearing fake beards to honor 00:16:51.250 --> 00:16:54.009 Sutter's iconic facial hair. That's great. He 00:16:54.009 --> 00:16:56.629 was just immensely respected by his peers. He 00:16:56.629 --> 00:16:59.190 spent his post -playing life staying in Atlanta. 00:16:59.629 --> 00:17:02.409 He had the joy of watching his son Chad get drafted 00:17:02.409 --> 00:17:05.289 to play professional baseball. He even took a 00:17:05.289 --> 00:17:07.549 job in 2010 as a minor league consultant for 00:17:07.549 --> 00:17:09.490 the Phillies, you know, passing his pitching 00:17:09.490 --> 00:17:11.670 knowledge down to the next generation of prospects. 00:17:11.890 --> 00:17:14.569 He eventually passed away in late 2022 at the 00:17:14.569 --> 00:17:17.630 age of 69 in hospice care following a cancer 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:21.400 diagnosis. So if we synthesize all of this. His 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:24.680 historical footprint is just massive. He proved 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:27.160 that having an elite dedicated weapon to close 00:17:27.160 --> 00:17:30.160 out a game was a championship necessity, which 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.240 really ushered in the era of the modern closer. 00:17:33.059 --> 00:17:34.720 Absolutely. Furthermore, he proved that mastering 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:38.519 a single devastating pitch, if it fundamentally 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:40.960 break the laws of physics that hitters are used 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:44.289 to, that can be enough. to conquer the major 00:17:44.289 --> 00:17:46.589 leagues. I want to leave everyone with a final 00:17:46.589 --> 00:17:48.549 thought to mull over, circling back to where 00:17:48.549 --> 00:17:50.789 we started today. Think about your own life, 00:17:51.069 --> 00:17:53.789 your career, or whatever industry you work in. 00:17:54.250 --> 00:17:57.269 How many massive innovations are waiting just 00:17:57.269 --> 00:18:00.339 on the other side of a perceived failure? If 00:18:00.339 --> 00:18:02.460 Bruce Sutter never gets that pinched nerve at 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:05.640 age 19, if his arm stays perfectly healthy, he 00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:08.039 probably remains a perfectly average, forgettable 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:10.960 minor league pitcher. Sometimes losing your greatest 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:13.799 strength is the exact prerequisite for discovering 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:14.779 your true genius.