Tommy John’s name will live on in baseball forever, long after his excellent 26-year major league pitching career ended. John died on Saturday at age 83, and will be long remembered for being the first to undergo the surgery that bears his name.
John’s baseball accolades on their own are mind-boggling. He played in 26 major league seasons, matched only in the modern era by Nolan Ryan, who pitched in 27 years. John is one of only eight pitchers to make 700 starts, and he pitched a whopping 4,710 1/3 innings in his major league career.
With the Dodgers, John led the National League in winning percentage in each of his first two seasons, including 13-3 for a pennant-winning team in 1974. But he didn’t pitch that year after July 17, sidelined by an elbow injury. That September, Dr. Frank Jobe tried a new elbow reconstruction surgery, replacing the ulnar collateral ligament in John’s left elbow.
“Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said. “His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come.”
After the first such procedure that would ultimately bear his name, John rehabbed in 1975 but returned to make at least 30 starts for his next seven full seasons, a stretch interrupted only by a strike-shortened 1981 season in which he started 20 games and pitched 140 1/3 innings.
John pitched in three World Series — two for the Dodgers against the Yankees in 1977-78 and one for the Yankees against the Dodgers in 1981 — and in his career had a 2.65 ERA in 14 postseason games, including 13 starts and 88 1/3 innings.
In the 1977 NLCS, John pitched a complete-game win in Philadelphia in Game 4 to clinch the pennant, finishing off the win with a strikeout of Bake McBride in Philadelphia.
John was 31 when he had the surgery, already with a solid dozen major league seasons under his belt. But his lasting power after the surgery was remarkable, pitching until age 46. He ended with more starts, innings, and wins after the surgery than before. He made one All-Star team prior to the elbow procedure, and was an All-Star three times afterward, and also finished second in Cy Young Award voting twice and fourth another time after the surgery.
The procedure is now commonplace, with hundreds of pitchers undergoing Tommy John surgery in the 52 years since. But John was the first, and his success afterward opened up doors for countless number of pitching careers to continue.
“While his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes and trajectory of countless athletes around the world, it also overshadowed his excellence as a pitcher, which included consecutive 20‑win seasons with the Yankees” the Yankees said in a statement. “We pause to remember the totality of his legacy — his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer.”
In the media room at Dodger Stadium there’s a large framed magazine cover with a picture of Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson from what appears to be the 1972 ceremony to retire the uniform numbers of Koufax, Robinson, and Roy Campanella. What strikes me about Koufax in the picture is the wonderful smile on his face, but also how young he was. Koufax was just 36 in 1972, and might have been able to still pitch if some form of elbow surgery was available six years earlier.
Koufax during his abrupt retirement in 1966 mentioned he didn’t want to regret one moment by continuing to pitch through pain. He’s still going and living a happy life and looks fantastic even now at age 90, so Koufax is likely happy with that decision all these years later. But he also didn’t have much of a choice at the time. After Tommy John and Dr. Frank Jobe, hundreds of pitchers had a chance at renewed life on the mound.
For that, Tommy John will be remembered forever.