To Absent Friends - Tommy John

 

Former major league pitcher Tommy John died over this past weekend at the age of 83.  We all should think of Tommy John like this:

However, John will most be remembered for this, 

the revolutionary surgery performed on him by  Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974 , a surgery that now bears his name.

This is what I wrote in part in The Grandstander on March 7, 2014, when I commemorated the death of Dr. Jobe:

It is a sad irony that Tommy John himself is better known today for the surgery that bears his name than for his career as a pitcher.  Too bad, considering that his career spanned 26 seasons and totaled a record of 288-231 with a 3.34 ERA.  He pitched in three World Series. Fourteen of those seasons and 164 of those wins came after he had Jobe's surgical procedure performed.  He retired in 1988 at the age of 46.

Was Tommy John a great pitcher?  Well, he was a very, very good pitcher, and when you look up the "Similarity Scores" for Tommy John on baseball-reference.com, nine of the ten pitchers listed are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  For the record, those nine are Jim Kaat, Robin Roberts, Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Tom Glavine, Burleigh Grimes, Don Sutton, and Eppa Rixey, so you be the Judge.

John was in the news only a week ago when the Yankees posted this letter that John had written to them when he had to decline an invitation to appear at the Yankees' annual Old Timers Day.

RIP Tommy John.