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.

To Absent Friends - Dr. Frank Jobe

Tommy John and Dr. Frank Jobe

Orthopedic surgeon Dr, Frank Jobe passed away yesterday at the age of 88.  As a distinguished surgeon, Dr. Jobe did many things, of course, but he will forever be remembered by baseball fans and players as the first surgeon to perform a tendon transplant to replace a torn ligament in the elbow of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John.  This happened in 1974, and the procedure became forever known as "Tommy John surgery", and it has rescued the careers of countless major league baseball players, particularly pitchers.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans today can be grateful for the work begun by Dr. Jobe in the person of pitcher Charlie Morton, who had the surgery in 2012, and is being counted on heavily by the Pirates in 2014 and beyond.  In fact, one can find a website devoted to all the MLB players who have had this surgery performed over the years.

http://mlbreports.com/tj-surgery/

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.

Frank Jobe was honored by the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2013 for his "contributions" to the game of baseball.  

RIP Dr. Frank Jobe.