The Los Angeles Angels joined the rest of baseball in mourning the passing of left-hander Tommy John, who pitched for the Halos for three years and underwent the arm surgery that’s become a staple of the modern game.
John, who passed over the weekend at the age of 83 after a bout with bladder cancer, pitched for 26 years and piled up 288 wins with a career ERA of 3.34 without making the Hall of Fame.
He was traded from the New York Yankees to the Angels in 1982, and John pitched in Anaheim for 3-1/2 years back when they were the California Angels, according to a writeup by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. John made a pair of appearances in the ’82 ALCS, and he was released in 1095. He went back to the Yankees, though, and the lefty pitched well into his forties.
But John is better known for the surgical procedure that bears his name, as he underwent surgery while pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974.
“Right at the point where I put force on the pitch, the point where my arm is back and bent, something happened,” John told Sports Illustrated in 1978. “It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else. It was as if my body continued to go forward and my left arm had just flown out to right field, independent of the rest of me. … I walked off the mound and met [manager] Walter Alston coming out of the dugout. ‘You better get somebody,’ I told him. ‘I just hurt my arm.’”
John was able to come back after having his injured tendon replaced by Dr. Frank Jobe, who quoted the odd of John’s return at 100-1. But the pitcher wasn’t ready to quit, so he took Jobe up on the challenge.
“I told him, ‘You’re a great doctor and I believe in you. But you’re wrong. I will come back,’” John said. “You did an excellent job inside my arm. Now it's up to me. I know how much pain my body can stand -- and it's quite a bit. I know how hard I can work, and if it takes 18 hours a day, I'll do it. I will come back.’”
Two years later John had one of the best seasons of his amazing career, as he went 20-7 record with a 2.78 ERA in 31 starts to help the Dodgers win a pennant as he finished second to Steve Carlton in the Cy Young Award voting.
“I was able to get hitters out when I didn’t have good stuff; my arm was like I never had surgery,” John later said.
The left-hander was a groundball pitcher throughout his career, and he went on to broadcast games for both the Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. The native of Terre Haute, Ind. was scheduled to appear in New York recently at the Yankees’ annual Old Timer’s Day, but instead the Yankees posted a social media message from John along with him speaking from his home in Bradenton, Fla. that was essentially his final farewell.