Bruce Sutter Marquee Hall of Fame 2006

Elbow surgery in the minor leagues took away his fastball. A Cubs instructor taught him the split-finger fastball, a pitch that arrived looking like a fastball and dropped at the plate, and it carried him twelve seasons. He appeared in 661 games, started none of them, saved 300, and finished 68-71 with a 2.83 earned run average.

He led the National League in saves five times between 1979 and 1984, and the 45 he saved in 1984 came across more than 120 innings, in an era when a closer pitched for more than the last out. The 1979 Cy Young Award went to him, rare for a relief pitcher, and he took four Reliever of the Year awards.

He saved games for the Cardinals' 1982 championship, then signed with Atlanta, where shoulder trouble cost him the whole of 1987 and ended his career the next year. His 300 saves stood third behind Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage. Writers passed on him twelve times before electing him in 2006, with 400 votes of 520. He died in 2022.