Dizzy Sutherland

Howard Alvin Sutherland

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.
• Debut September 20, 1949
• Final Game September 20, 1949
• Born April 9, 1922 in Washington, DC USA
• Died August 26, 1979 in Washington, DC USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Dizzy Sutherland was a pitcher eight years (1946-1953), three in semipro/independent ball (1946-1948); five in the minors (1949-1953) and a cup of coffee in 1949. Sutherland was born on Sunday, April 9, 1922, in Washington, DC.

Inducted into the U.S. Army, he was wounded in three places when he parachuted with the Army Airborne forces into Italy. He was captured by the Germans and spent the remainder of World War II in a Prisoner of War camp. He had lost 100 pounds when liberated from the camp at the conclusion of the war. As he regained his health he was driving a cab in D.C. and playing semi-pro baseball on the weekends when he was scouted by Spencer Abbott and signed to pitch for Charlotte in the Class B Tri-State League in 1949.

He had a record of 18 and 10 with an ERA of 3.22 and was 27 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 20, 1949, with the Washington Senators. He started one game and was taken out in the second inning with the bases loaded and none out. He gave up 8 runs on 2 hits and 6 walks and was charged with the loss. He was with Charlotte again in 1950 and though recalled by the Senators in September did not pitch in another major league game. He returned to the minors with Charlotte in 1951 and Richmond in the Piedmont League (1953); ending his baseball career at age 31.

Overall in the minors, he was (49-33). He died at age 57 in Washington on August 21, 1979 and is buried at Cheltenham Veteran's Cemetery in Cheltenham, MD.

Sources

Principal sources for Dizzy Sutherland include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Dizzy Sutherland at the Baseball Almanac
• Dizzy Sutherland Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)