Remembering Don Sutton Don Sutton, the Hall of Fame pitcher, has died at the age of 75 after a long fight against cancer. Sutton was a mainstay of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff, but nearly began his career with Charlie Finley’s Oakland As. Imagine an As staff with Sutton plus Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, Blue Moon Odom, and Rollie Fingers. How did Oakland miss out on Sutton? The story, from Whitey Herzog who tried to sign Sutton for Finley, is that the pitcher wanted a signing bonus of $16,000. But Finley had just paid several bonuses to pitchers and balked at springing for another one.