Former All-Star pitcher Tommy John, whose innovative elbow surgery from more than 50 years ago has helped thousands of pitchers prolong their careers, sent an emotional message to the New York Yankees on Old-Timers’ Day on Saturday, thanking the organization and the fans while acknowledging his failing health.
John, 83, who has battled bladder cancer and other ailments in recent years, reached out and expressed his gratitude to late Dr. Frank Jobe, late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and Yankees fans.
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“I want to thank the Yankees organization & the Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone, along with all the friends & fans who followed me throughout my 26-year career.”
He concluded the message saying, “The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me & said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it big in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.
“I’ve never forgotten those words. Thank you & God Bless.”
John, a 288-game winner over a 26-year career, became synonymous with baseball elbow injuries when he underwent surgery performed by Dr. Jobe on Sept. 25, 1974, removing a tendon from John’s wrist, drilling four holes in the ulna and humerus bones of his left elbow, grafting the tendons together, and holding them in place with anchors.
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It became one of the most innovative and influential surgeries in the history of sports medicine, performed on more than 3,000 pitchers.
It is now referred to simply as “Tommy John surgery.”
“It’s amazing how many careers that surgery has saved,” John told USA TODAY Sports two years ago. “It was just an experimental surgery. I would have tried many things to come back and pitch. I told Dr. Jobe, do whatever you can to fix it. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, hey, we gave it our best.
“Thank God it worked. It was such a blessing. The only thing I hate is that 50 years later, it’s needed more than ever, and that’s sad. You would think with modern training and techniques, pitchers wouldn’t need that surgery as much.”
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John went on to pitch for another 14 years while winning 164 more games.
He has frequently been asked why the surgery was named after him and not Dr. Jobe himself.
“I asked Frank about that,” John said. “He was such a humble guy, but he told me that he was tired of saying ‘ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery with the palmaris longus tendon.’ It was easier for him to say, ‘Oh, the surgery I performed on Tommy John.’
“It quickly just became, ‘Tommy John surgery.'”
It soon became the surgery heard ’round the baseball world.
Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tommy John says goodbye: Baseball icon shares emotional message on Yankees Old-Timers’ Day
