Former MLB pitcher Tommy John reflects on 50th anniversary of famous surgery
BRADENTON, Fla. - Inside his home office in Bradenton, Tommy John can rewind and reflect on a career in baseball.
"I couldn't find a better job," he joked.
Among the paintings, plaques and memorabilia that decorate the walls of this mini-museum, the man who this shrine is dedicated to, and his now-famous left elbow, can take a trip back in time.
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Over an amazing 26-year career as a Big-League pitcher, Tommy John amassed 288 career wins, which is seventh most by a left-handed pitcher in baseball history.
"That doesn't happen now, and it probably won't happen. But when it was my turn, I pitched," John said. "Two-hundred eighty-eight wins is a lot of wins. But I had 188 no decisions."
Yet these days, the name Tommy John isn't synonymous with a career on the mound, but for the surgery that now bears his name.
"It's ulnar collateral ligament replacement with the palmaris longus tendon," John explained.
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That's what the surgery was officially called back in 1974 when Dr. Frank Jobe replaced the torn ligament in John's throwing elbow. It was the first time in baseball history that an athlete had undergone a ligament replacement surgery.
"I couldn't throw a baseball and wasn't going to throw a baseball again," John said.
Fifty years ago, last week, John went under Dr. Jobe's knife and made medical and baseball history in the same breath. The rest really did become history.
"[Dr. Jobe] cut it down to 'The surgery I did on Tommy John.' And then doctors shortened it to Tommy John Surgery," John explained. "And that's how it was born."
These days, the surgery that now carries John's name is as common in baseball as pop flies and groundouts. But 50 years ago, a doctor and a pitcher decided to try the unthinkable together.
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"I wanted to play baseball," John said. "And, the only way I was going to play baseball again was to have the surgery."
Even while most baseball fans remember the name Tommy John more for what the long-time pitcher did on an operating table than on the mound, that stigma doesn't bother him.
"Not at all," said John. "I pitched pretty dag gone good."
Now, half a century later, John is happy to have played his part in changing the history of the game he grew up loving.
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