Thomas Edward John Jr. (born May 22, 1943) is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball whose 288 career victories rank as the seventh highest total among left-handers in major league history and the most by any pitcher not selected for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.^[1] He is also known for the revolutionary surgery, now named after him, which was performed on a damaged ligament in his pitching arm.^[2]

[edit] Playing career

An outstanding basketball player at Gerstmeyer High School in Terre Haute, where he held the city single game scoring record, John was originally signed by the Cleveland Indians, making his major league debut in 1963. Of his 26-year major league career, he is best remembered for his seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1970s. He made appearances in the All-Star Game in 1968, 1978, 1979, and 1980. He played in all three Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series of his era (1977, 1978 and 1981), but was on the losing end of all three, having switched over to the Yankees by the time the Dodgers took the Series in 1981. John never played on a major league championship team.

In the middle of the 1974 season, John was cruising along with a 13-3 record as the Dodgers were en route to their first National League pennant in eight years, before he permanently damaged the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, leading to a revolutionary surgical operation. This operation, now known as Tommy John surgery, replaced the ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm with a tendon from his right forearm. The surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe on September 25, 1974, and although it seemed unlikely he would ever be able to pitch again, he spent the entire 1975 season in recovery and returned to the Dodgers in 1976. His 10-10 record that year was considered "miraculous" but John went on to pitch until 1989, winning 164 games after his surgery—one fewer game than all-time great Sandy Koufax won in his entire career. After Phil Niekro's retirement, John spent 1988 and 1989 as the oldest player in the major leagues. Today, many pitchers have Tommy John surgery during their careers.

John decided it was time to retire in 1989, when Mark McGwire got two hits off him. McGwire's father was John's dentist. John said of his decision, "When your dentist's kid starts hitting you, it's time to retire!"

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Post retirement

John did commentary on select games during WPIX's final year of broadcasting Yankee baseball in 1998. He also guest hosted the Mike and Mike ESPN Radio program on June 26, 2008. It is unknown whether he will do any further work for the network. On December 17, 2006, John was named manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League, an independent minor league in the Northeast. He is currently the spokesman for Tommy John's Go-Flex, a joint cream for older athletes. He is also currently doing a national radio tour to promote this product as well as talk about life as a minor league coach, his years in the Major Leagues and to educate younger pitchers on taking care of their arms. ^[3]

Tommy John resigned as manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish on July 8, 2009, to pursue a "non-baseball position."with Sportable Scoreboards.^[4] In two-and-a-half years of managing, he compiled a 159-176 won-lost record with Bridgeport.

[edit] Hall of Fame

John failed to get enough votes to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his last year (2009) of eligibility with only 31.7% of the vote. In 2010, John can be selected by the Veterans Committee.

[edit] Personal life

Tommy married the former Sally Simmons on July 13, 1970. They are parents of four children—Tamara, Tommy III, Travis, and Taylor. In 1981, when Travis was two years old, he tragically fell 37 feet from a third-floor window in his family's New Jersey vacation house, bounced off the fender of a car, swallowed his tongue, then lay in a coma for 17 days. He later made a full recovery.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Tommy John surgery
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
• List of most hit batsman by MLB pitcher
• Top 100 Major League Baseball strikeout pitchers

[edit] Bibliography

• The Tommy John Story, F.H. Revell Company, 1978. ISBN 0-8007-0923-3. (With Sally John and Joe Musser, foreword by Tommy Lasorda.)
• The Sally and Tommy John Story: Our Life in Baseball, Macmillan, 1983. ISBN 0-02-559260-2. (With Sally John.)
• TJ: My Twenty-Six Years in Baseball, Bantam, 1991. ISBN 0-553-07184-X. (With Dan Valenti.)
• The Official Site of Tommy John

[edit] References

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• The Baseball Page