"I was a pioneer in how the bullpen is used today," Gossage said. "I did the work it takes three guys to do today. Don't compare what Mariano does today to what I did. It's two different positions."
Before the 1973 season, Sutter, a 20-year-old minor leaguer, did not tell the Cubs that he had had elbow surgery. After the surgery, Sutter was leery about throwing certain pitches. Then Martin showed him a new, split-finger grip in which the index and middle fingers were spread wide outside the seams of the ball.
By 1976, Sutter was on the Cubs. He saved 31 games and had a 1.34 earned run average in his second year, and he saved 37 games and won the National League Cy Young Award in 1979. The Cubs traded him to the Cardinals before the 1981 season, and Sutter helped St. Louis win the World Series in 1982.
The Veterans Committee does not vote this year, so no other major league player will be inducted with Sutter on July 30. The results from a special Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues voting committee will be revealed next month, so at least one other player may be honored. Regardless, Sutter knows he is finally a Hall of Famer.
"It was a call you always hope for, but you never really expect it to happen," Sutter said. "And, when it did, I didn't think it would affect me or hit me as hard as it did, but it sure did."
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