Braves broadcaster happy to be home, in the game

Don Sutton's idea of making himself at home is kicking off his shoes. That's what he does every night in the radio booth at Turner Field.

White-socked and happy, he's back at the microphone calling Braves games. And Sutton has never felt more at home.

"I knew I would be comfortable coming back here," Sutton said. "I didn't realize I'd have this much fun, it'd be this enjoyable. It's fallen into place for all of us. Even the dog is happy."

After a two-year hiatus with the Washington Nationals, Sutton, 64, is back with the team where he spent 18 years as a broadcaster. The Braves will recognize him in a pregame ceremony today at Turner Field for his "Stay in the Game" program, which promotes kidney cancer awareness.

The Braves were looking for something "old home" when they turned to Sutton last winter. After Skip Caray's death and the retirement of Pete Van Wieren, the Braves and their fans craved something they knew. Joe Mayfield, 47, of Marietta, said in 27 years as a Braves fan, it was the familiar that drew him to the radio broadcasters.

"You knew what was going on in their lives, you knew the jokes they were about to crack, you knew what they were laughing about when they didn't even say it," Mayfield said. "When Skip died it was like 'Oh no, what am I going to do without Skip.' And then Pete retired, and it was like 'I might as well not even turn back on the radio because it's going to be two guys I don't know.' "

Better than before

He had all but settled on watching TV, which doesn't feel as personal to him, when the Braves hired Sutton back.

"It was like I was OK again," Mayfield said. "[Sutton] is a good radio guy. He's also a comfort. He's somebody I've seemed to have known forever."

Sutton longed for the familiar too.

"I don't think you ever really appreciate how good something is until you get a chance to go somewhere and come back and revisit," Sutton said.

Only this time it seems even better. This time around, Sutton is an employee of the Braves, rather than a TV or radio station, which he said makes him feel better informed and connected to the Braves.

"I feel like I'm an extension of the ball club, a vehicle, rather than somebody who's renting space there," Sutton said.

He's hit it off with his new broadcast partner Jim Powell, a humble sort, who doesn't seek much attention in a small crowd, must less a broadcast audience.

"I'm enjoying him so much," Sutton said. "He's become a friend. I have great appreciation for his broadcast skills. We are just different enough, I think, to be complementary, but we're alike in so many things.

"I don't think either one of us wants you tomorrow to say, 'Hey did you hear what Sutton said' or 'Did you hear what Powell said.' I think tomorrow morning we want you to say, 'Hey, how about that play in the fifth inning.' "

Powell, 44, said he appreciates working with someone so knowledgeable about the game.

"I can go in any direction I want on the baseball side in a conversation with Don, and Don will have answers," Powell said. "If he doesn't know the answer, he'll come up with theories, but he just has a great way of looking at the game and he knows it from all sides."

An easy transition

It also helped his transition, Powell said, that Sutton is so well-known. Powell was born and raised in Roswell and went to the University of Georgia, but he was a stranger to Braves fans coming in after 13 years with the Brewers.

"If it was me coming in from Wisconsin and another guy from a similar situation, it would be like two people from another planet dropping into the households of all the Braves fans," Powell said. "I think the fact that Don is so well known, his voice is so distinctive, has really helped people go ahead and enjoy Braves baseball this year, even though their favorite announcers Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray are no longer on the broadcast."

As for Sutton's transition back, he said the Braves have made that easy.

They have allowed him the flexibility to fly home to California for breaks during the school year to spend time with his wife, Mary, and their 12-year-old daughter, Jackie. Here, in the summer, Jackie helps out Homer the Brave mascot, which makes Dad happy, even though it means he has to leave for the ballpark 45 minutes early.

He's also closer to his doctors at Piedmont Hospital. Sutton was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2002, something he has stabilized with regular medication, but which requires regular visits to the doctor.

Sutton has also enjoyed reconnecting with this audience.

"These are my people," said Sutton, who was born in Clio, Ala. "I'm from the South. I go on our games assuming that 90 percent of the people listening to us are Braves fans, that they're almost all from the Southeast, and that a lot of them are my relatives.

"I want to do the game talking to my Aunt Lois in Alabama, to my dad Howard in Pensacola, to John Welsh in North Carolina and my friends in Tennessee. I want to do the game with them feeling like we're just sitting around talking."