The most memorable highlight of Bruce Sutter’s career resurfaces on social media on his birthday. It’s a fastball, a swing and a miss and strike three.
The pitch lives forever in the minds of St. Louis Cardinals fans because it was the final out of Game 7 of the 1982 World Series.
In that sense, Sutter, who died in 2022 and would have turned 73 on Jan. 8, is immortal. Sports are magical in that way.
Before the Donegal grad was that guy. He was our guy. A Lancaster County legend. The reality didn’t sneak up on anyone when Sutter was playing on local fields more than five decades ago.
“We knew that Bruce was the best pitcher we would see in a high school game,” former rival Ted Ansel said. “Everyone knew how good Bruce was.”
Sutter was, famously, the ace of Donegal’s staff. Ansel was, less famously, the best pitcher for Garden Spot.
Fate put them on opposite sides for one of Lancaster County’s greatest baseball championship games in 1970.
Sutter struck out 12 and allowed three hits. Ansel struck out seven and surrendered four hits. Donegal won 2-1 in nine innings and both pitchers stayed in for the entire game. Who knows how many pitches they threw? They didn’t count back then.
The matchup unfolded at Ephrata’s War Memorial Field on May 29 and it was a must-see event within the community and beyond. Thousands attended the marquee games in those days. Some were broadcast on the radio.
“At the time, I think there were 24 major league teams and there were 26 scouts at the game,” Ansel said. “It was really something. It was electric.”
Garden Spot’s only run against Sutter came on pinch-hitter Jim Ludwig’s suicide squeeze bunt in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. It had to be the gutsiest decision of that season by legendary coach Ray Stern.
Donegal won when “Hard-hitting” Butch McCurdy, as he was called in the recap, singled home Sutter with the go-ahead run. McCurdy earned that description. The all-county second baseman batted .405 for the Indians.
Ansel and Sutter couldn’t escape each other that spring and summer. They squared off in the final game of the best-of-3 American Legion championship series in July. Mount Joy beat New Holland again.
Known as a fireballing right-hander in newspaper accounts, Ansel was a star in his own right. He threw two no-hitters in consecutive weeks, including one against Lampeter-Strasburg to clinch Section Two.
Garden Spot’s Ted Ansel fires home a pitch during one of his no-hitters in 1970.
LNP photo
An interesting side note: Ansel and Sutter were the two pitchers selected all-county by the coaches. Sutter was named on 10 of a possible 14 first team ballots. He was chosen second team three times and omitted once. The vote hasn’t aged well.
Ansel and Sutter became friends after high school. Ansel pitched at Elizabethtown College, where his roommate was John Shrum, Donegal’s center fielder.
Sutter reached the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 1976. Ansel went to watch the reliever’s first game at Philadelphia. They attended a mutual friend’s bachelor party afterward.
“Bruce would run in the outfield before the game,” Ansel said. “Frequently, on his way into the dugout, he’d stop to say hello. Kids would be hanging over my back to get his autograph.”
Sutter was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006. Ansel was in Cooperstown for the occasion.
Having Sutter on the opposite side for the biggest games of Ansel’s youth seemed like bad luck. He didn’t view it that way. For him, it was a badge of honor.
“I pitched as good a game as I could against Bruce,” Ansel said. “I pitched well enough to win. I was pretty darn proud. I had done right by my teammates.”
Ansel still recalls the 1970 all-star photo. The Garden Spot great is standing in the back row with Sutter two players away. The memories, he said, are priceless.
As he talked about matching wits and fastballs with a future Hall of Famer, Ansel seemed wistful. He was asked if he wished he could revisit those glory days.
“Oh, no,” Ansel said. “I’ve had them. I understand just how incredibly fortunate I was.”
For those who played in that famous game in 1970, it might as well have been the World Series.
The 1970 Lancaster County baseball all-star team.
LNP Photo
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