MLB Pitcher Tommy John, 'Bionic Man' of Baseball, Dies at 83
Tommy John, the four-time MLB All-Star whose name became permanently linked to a groundbreaking elbow surgery, has died at 83.
John died Saturday at his home in Bradenton, Florida, surrounded by his wife, Cheryl, and other family members, his agent Mike Maguire said in a statement. A specific cause of death was not given, though John had recently undergone treatment related to a recurrence of bladder cancer and had been in hospice care.
A Career Defined by a Career-Saving Surgery
John won 288 games over a 26-year major league career, pitching for six teams: the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels and Oakland A's. He finished with 2,245 strikeouts and a 3.34 ERA, and among Modern Era pitchers and position players, only Nolan Ryan played more MLB seasons than John.
His legacy, though, extends well beyond his own statistics. In 1974, at age 31, John tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, an injury that had effectively ended pitchers' careers up to that point. Rather than retire, he underwent an experimental procedure performed by Dr. Frank Jobe, who replaced the torn ligament in John's elbow with a tendon taken from his right wrist. It marked the first time the surgery had been attempted on a pitcher's elbow.
Jobe, who died in 2014, once estimated the odds of the surgery succeeding at 1 in 100. John missed the entire 1975 season recovering, then returned to pitch through 1989, making 382 of his 700 career starts after the operation. He won 20 games for the first time in 1977 and finished as the runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award that year, later reaching the World Series with the Dodgers in both 1977 and 1978.
A Procedure That Reshaped Modern Baseball
The surgery now known as "Tommy John surgery" has since become one of the most common procedures in professional sports, with an estimated 80% of pitchers who undergo it returning to their previous level of performance or better, according to Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Los Angeles Dodgers' lead physician. Many of the sport's top modern pitchers have had the operation performed on their own careers.
In a farewell letter shared by the Yankees during the team's 78th Old-Timers' Day earlier this month, John thanked the organization and the Steinbrenner family for the chance to say goodbye to fans and former teammates, and credited Jobe with saving his arm and extending his career.
The Yankees said in a statement that John's longevity and the surgery that carries his name changed the outlook for pitchers across the sport for decades to come. John is survived by his wife and three children, Tommy, Travis and Tamara.
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