Baseball pitching great Tommy John died at his Florida home on Saturday night. He was 83.
Unfortunately for many, remembering his game takes a backseat to the fact that his name is commonly ***** ociated with one of the sport's most common surgeries.
The four-time MLB All-Star with a career ERA of just 3.34 was 31 in 1974 when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Los Angeles Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe replaced the ligament with a tendon from the forearm in his non-pitching arm.
Long story short, he pitched for 14 more years and his name — is ***** ociated with the procedure — Tommy John surgery — now so widely ***** ociated with baseball that it churned up numbers like the ones Albuquerque Isotopes broadcaster and baseball journalist/historian Josh Suchon shared on his Substack page on Monday.
In the essay Suchon wrote — "When did people start calling it Tommy John surgery?" — he noted a rather interesting, albeit unplanned, tribute of sorts to John by the Isotopes in their game Sunday, the day his passing was announced.
#game
Unfortunately for many, remembering his game takes a backseat to the fact that his name is commonly ***** ociated with one of the sport's most common surgeries.
The four-time MLB All-Star with a career ERA of just 3.34 was 31 in 1974 when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Los Angeles Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe replaced the ligament with a tendon from the forearm in his non-pitching arm.
Long story short, he pitched for 14 more years and his name — is ***** ociated with the procedure — Tommy John surgery — now so widely ***** ociated with baseball that it churned up numbers like the ones Albuquerque Isotopes broadcaster and baseball journalist/historian Josh Suchon shared on his Substack page on Monday.
In the essay Suchon wrote — "When did people start calling it Tommy John surgery?" — he noted a rather interesting, albeit unplanned, tribute of sorts to John by the Isotopes in their game Sunday, the day his passing was announced.
#game
3 days ago
