"Short Term Stops", #5: Don Sutton

1985 Topps Traded #116T Don Sutton (A's)

Thanks to MLB Network's "Baseball IQ", one of the better baseball facts I recently learned is that Don Sutton is the all-time leader in ten-win seasons for a pitcher, posting 21 seasons with ten wins or more. (Curiously, he only had one twenty-win season.)

That's more than Nolan Ryan or Walter Johnson. It's even more than Cy Young. I would've never guessed Don Sutton in a million years.

Now that I think of it, it does make sense. Sutton never spent a single day on the disabled list in his 23 years of MLB service. ("Donny" was never out of his element, to quote The Big Lebowski.)

After he left the Dodgers in 1980, he pitched for a few different teams, going from the Astros, to the Brewers, to the A's, to the Angels. He'd finish his career in 1988 where he started, pitching in 16 games for the Dodgers.

I was aware that he played for all those teams. Except the A's. Sutton pitched in 29 games for the A's in 1985, picking up thirteen of his 324 career wins in the process. He was dealt to the Angels in a late-season trade that year, pitching the final five games of the season for the Halos.

This card came out of a 15/$1 box at the last card show I attended, so the card itself cost a little over six cents.

So for six cents, not only did I get the card, but I learned something new about baseball history.
 

I'll take that deal any day of the week.