![]() Lance Rautzhan relieved Sutton and got Tyson to again fly out to Monday in right. He declared Sutton’s last pitch to Tyson a ball and told Tyson to get back into the batter’s box. Harvey ordered the Dodgers to return to the field and ejected Sutton. It was enough of a scuff to alter the flight of the ball.” There was, Harvey told the Los Angeles Times, “a roughness on the ball almost in exactly the same spot on all three. He saw the same scuff mark in a similar spot as the other two balls. As the Dodgers left the field, Harvey called for the ball. In the seventh, the Cardinals’ Mike Tyson flied out to right fielder Rick Monday for the third out of the inning. “I told him if the pitcher pitched another defaced ball I would eject him,” Harvey recalled to The Sporting News. Harvey went to Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and said, “Someone is fooling with the baseball.” Harvey, umpiring at second, picked up the ball and saw it was defaced.Īccording to Harvey, “the ball had an identical type of scuff mark” as the one Crawford showed him a few innings earlier, the Los Angeles Times noted. ![]() In the sixth, after Keith Hernandez lined out to center fielder Bill North to end the inning, North rolled the ball toward the infield. ![]() Harvey told Crawford to hold onto the ball. Crawford showed it to crew chief Doug Harvey and said, “Doug, this ball has been defaced,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The Cardinals had the worst record (35-53) in the league and the Dodgers were defending champions.Įarly in the game, either in the second or third, Jerry Crawford, umpiring at first, looked at the ball after the Cardinals had made the last out of the inning. “I called him a fat, gutless, little jackass.”Ī year later, Sutton, 33, was seeking his 200th career win in a Friday night start for the Dodgers at Busch Memorial Stadium. “His face was red and his veins were throbbing,” Sutton told the Los Angeles Times. Sutton fired it low and hard, and the ball skimmed past Stello and into left field.įroemming started out to the mound to confront Sutton. Dick Stello, umpiring at third, asked for the ball. Umpires obliged, but found nothing.īefore delivering his next pitch, Sutton knelt on the mound and belligerently rubbed the ball in the dirt, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cubs manager Herman Franks joined in, requesting a search of Sutton. Bill Buckner, an ex-Dodger, was batting against Sutton when he asked plate umpire Bruce Froemming to inspect the ball. On June 8, 1977, in a game versus the Cubs, Sutton was ejected for the first time. Scuffing “makes the ball unpredictable,” Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons told the St. Reds manager Sparky Anderson complained Sutton routinely broke the rules by scuffing the ball. Ten years later, the Cardinals’ Lou Brock implied Sutton used Vaseline to make his pitches dart and dip. The Cardinals accused him of throwing a spitball the first time they faced him his rookie season. He also had a reputation for doctoring the ball. The punishment for such a violation included a 10-day suspension, but National League president Chub Feeney opted not to take that disciplinary action after getting a visit from Sutton’s lawyer.Ī right-hander, Sutton was a gifted pitcher who consistently achieved double-digit season win totals. On July 14, 1978, Sutton, the Dodgers’ ace, was ejected by umpire Doug Harvey for pitching a defaced baseball against the Cardinals. Louis, Don Sutton and the Dodgers denied, covered up and threatened to sue. ![]() After getting caught breaking the rules in a game at St. ![]()
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