MIAMI — The Marlins will honor retiring broadcaster Tommy Hutton with “Thank You Tommy Day” on Sunday, Aug. 23, when Miami hosts the Washington Nationals at 1:40 p.m. ET at loanDepot park.
Hutton, 80, announced earlier this year that he will retire following the 2026 season, closing a professional baseball career that began when he signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in November 1964.
The pregame ceremony will feature a video retrospective of his time with the club. His three granddaughters will throw out the ceremonial first pitch — to their grandfather.
“Tommy has been the voice of Marlins baseball for an entire generation of fans in South Florida,” Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman said in a statement, citing a 61-year career spanning 12 major league seasons as a player and more than 40 years behind a microphone.
From left to right, former Florida Marlins players Carl Pavano, Jeff Conine, Juan Pierre, Josh Beckett and announcer Tommy Hutton commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Marlins 2003 World Series championship before the baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the New York Yankees, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo/Jim Rassol)
Twelve seasons, two countries
Hutton debuted for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sept. 16, 1966, at 20 years old — the 12,462nd player in major league history. He spent six seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, then was sold to the Toronto Blue Jays in December 1977 and to the Montreal Expos the following July, finishing his playing days north of the border in 1981.
He hit .248 across 952 games, mostly at first base, where he was excellent — a .995 career fielding percentage. He appeared in the 1976 and 1977 National League Championship Series with Philadelphia.
Three things about that career stand out on the page.
He was never once hit by a pitch. Not in 12 seasons, not in 1,920 plate appearances.
He hit Tom Seaver like almost no one else did. In 62 plate appearances against the Hall of Famer, Hutton batted .320 with three home runs, 15 RBI and 11 walks.
And in 1980, with Montreal, he pitched. One inning, three hits, three runs, one strikeout — the only appearance on the mound of his professional life.
From the field to the booth
Former baseball player Tommy Hutton speaks at a memorial service for Hall-of-Fame catcher Gary Carter, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Carter died Feb. 16 of brain cancer. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Allen Eyestone, Pool)
The booth came almost immediately after. Hutton called games for the Expos in 1985 and 1986, the Yankees from 1987 to 1989, and the Blue Jays from 1990 to 1996 — meaning he both played for and broadcast Canada’s two major league franchises. He also worked for ESPN, and in 1995 called American League Division Series games for both NBC and ABC.
He joined the Marlins in 1997, the franchise’s first World Series championship season, stayed through 2015, and returned to the booth in 2022 under Sherman.
The Emmy Award winner lives in Palm Beach Gardens and is a Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame inductee. In 2012 he spoke at the memorial service for Gary Carter, his former Expos teammate, in the same town.
