21. Tommy John and the impact he had on baseball

It's July 17, 1974 and Dodgers pitcher Tommy John is in the midst of his best season in baseball. He's 13-3 with an ERA of 2.59 and helping lead Los Angeles to first place in the NL West. And then in the 3rd inning that day against the Montreal Expos, one pitch changed his season, his career and the course of baseball history. One pitch. Tommy John was hurt, and while they tried resting his sore left elbow, that wasn't doing the trick and on September 25, 1974, Dr. Frank Jobe performed the surgery and when he was asked what it was called he said, “Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction of the elbow using ipsilateral palmaris longus tendon graft”. Understandably, he grew tired of having to say that and referred to it as "the surgery I performed on Tommy John." And soon enough, Tommy John surgery was part of the American lexicon. Now, 50 years after undergoing this groundbreaking surgery, Tommy joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast and talks about that time in his life, the rehab, and the comeback that allowed him to win 164 games after returning from the surgery named after him. His 288 career wins is more than anyone but Roger Clemens who is not in the Hall of Fame, and the 188 No Decisions he endured are the most in baseball history... but the true irony of TJ not being a Hall of Famer -- yet -- is that had he not had to have Tommy John surgery, he certainly would have gotten to 300 wins... the golden ticket to Cooperstown. It's a look back at a time when this arm injury ended many careers, until Tommy John said to Dr. Jobe... not me. Let's fix this. And that's just what they did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices