“It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else. It was as if my body continued to go forward and my left arm had just flown out to right field, independent of the rest of me.” 

Tommy John described the terrifying moment when, after throwing a fastball, he suffered a devastating injury to his left elbow in 1974, and it appeared to be the end of his career. Though that wasn’t enough to stop him, he took a chance on a revolutionary procedure that not only allowed him to continue winning games for another 14 seasons but also transformed baseball.

John underwent ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction in 1974 and returned to the mound in 1976. He went on to achieve 288 wins and 2,245 strikeouts before retiring in 1989. Now, as the entire baseball community mourns his passing, people aren’t simply remembering a great pitcher. They are paying homage to a player who told Dr. Frank Jobe, “You’re a great doctor, and I believe in you. But you’re wrong. I will come back,” when the team physician thought he would never throw another pitch.

Thomas Edward John Jr. was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 22, 1943. He was excellent in both baseball and basketball as a student. After he graduated in 1961, several schools recruited him for basketball, but it was Cleveland scout Johnny Schulte who was bedazzled by John’s curveball, and the club signed him that year at the age of 18. 

The day he first left for his pitching job, his old man told him something that has been etched in his mind:

“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.”

The lefty joined the Dodgers in 1972 after spending a couple of years with Cleveland and seven seasons with the Chicago White Sox. Just two years later, in 1974, he suffered a devastating injury that had many believing his career was over. And John explained why back in 2007 during an interview with the now-Yankees physician, Dr. Christopher Ahmad.

“I don’t recall a pitcher in the 60s or 70s who had surgery and came back. In 1972, I slid into home plate and jammed my left elbow. Dr. Jobe diagnosed me with loose chips and recommended surgical removal. I did not know if surgery was the right choice, so I called my dad.”

After reassurance from his father, Dr. Jobe cleaned out the chips and repaired his flexor tendon. During the 1973 Spring Training, John returned to the field, feeling good, but he was not throwing well. While everyone wondered if his arm was okay, and trainers told him that it was, John could tell otherwise. He wanted to feel confident, so he took action.

He took 6 baseballs out of Dodger Town and threw them as hard as possible with a catcher. The next day, he followed the same routine with curveballs. But this was not the first time he experienced such pain.

“I first hurt my elbow when I was 13 years of age, when changing from Little League to Babe Ruth League. The mound-to-home distance increased from 45 feet to 60 feet. With my elbow hurt, I played first base for a while. I really became a pitcher in high school,” John shared with Dr. Ahmad.

In 1963, he got his first elbow cortisone injection. Earlier that week, he threw a shutout, but the next morning, he couldn’t move his arm. Between November 22, 1963, and July 14, 1974, he had over 40 cortisone injections. But the injury in 1974 was the one that changed everything.

That year, midseason, ‘The Bionic Man’ recorded 13-3, including five complete games and three shutouts. That was the best in baseball that season. Then, in a game against the Montreal Expos, he attempted a sinker to produce a double play. And disaster rolled in.

During that pitch, he felt a searing pain in his elbow. Despite that, he went for another pitch that flew awkwardly into the stands. After that, he walked off the mound to talk to the trainers and Dr. Jobe. And while we are at it, let’s remember there was no MRI technology available back then.

But the doc diagnosed him with an elbow ulnar collateral ligament tear through a physical examination and stress view X-rays. John’s arm was put in a cast for four weeks. But the UCL didn’t heal. Upon his return to light throwing, John experienced pain. He was unable to pitch, but unwilling to give up, as well.

John then made the decision that changed the future of UCL, and of pitchers.

Dr. Jobe was asked to surgically fix his elbow. But a surgical solution was nonexistent at the time. When the doctor explained that to John, his answer was straightforward:

“Make something up.”

Dr. Frank Jobe did.

He consulted hand surgeon Herb Stark and orthopedic surgeon Lew Yocum and informed Tommy John that he had a 1 in 100 chance of returning to competitive baseball. Yet, that created one of the most significant moments in the history of sports medicine.

On September 25, 1974, when John’s ligament was surgically exposed and inspected, it was severely damaged. The ligament could not simply be repaired as an Achilles tendon rupture. So Jobe got creative.

He harvested a tendon from John’s right wrist and made drill holes in the elbow bones where the natural UCL attaches. He then weaved the tendon through the drill holes and pulled it nice and tight. Finally, the damaged UCL was “reconstructed” after the revolutionary four-hour procedure.

“You did an excellent job inside my arm. Now it’s up to me,” he told the doctor. “I know how much pain my body can stand – and it’s quite a bit. And I know how hard I can work, and if it takes 18 hours a day, I’ll do it. I will come back.”

And he did.

He went through two full years of rehabilitation, working with fellow Dodgers pitcher Mike Marshall and learning a different grip, before resuming pitching in 1976 Spring Training, and went for three, five, and seven innings in the 3 games he pitched. But he was rusty. It could be because Tommy John went through two surgeries in 1974 in a matter of 3 months. Many don’t know about the second one.

“Scar tissue had started to form around the ulnar nerve, and I started to get what was known as a claw hand. I couldn’t make my fingers go back and forth… Dr. Jobe went back in and cleaned out the scar tissue and fixed the nerve,” he once shared in an exclusive interview with Athletes Quarterly, conducted by Michael Dolan.

Now, coming back to the Dodgers, John pitched five innings against Atlanta on his return in the regular season, but the team wasn’t satisfied with his performance. Being the first pitcher to start a game after UCL reconstruction, he allowed 3 runs. The then-manager, Walter Alston, called the ace and informed him that his next start would be his last start.

According to that, his last start could be in Houston – a difficult ballpark for a sinkerball pitcher. He found himself in trouble.

With a 3–0 count on Bob Watson, catcher and outfielder Joe Ferguson came out to the mound and said, “Since this is your last batter in the Majors, why don’t you give up a home run and go out in style?” while suggesting that he throw fastballs. John threw 4 seamers as hard as possible and got a strikeout. He threw a 7-inning shutout with 2 hits that day.

Alston took his word back and assured that he could start another game. Since then, over 13 years, he never missed another start.

Tommy John recorded 164 wins and earned three All-Star selections after the surgery (four-time All-Star altogether). He was also the runner-up for the Cy Young Award twice. John recorded 2,245 strikeouts but never led the league in wins or strikeouts. But he had the second-most wins of any pitcher since 1900 who was not elected to the Hall of Fame.

From 1995 through 2009, John was on the Hall of Fame ballot, but he never received more than 31.7% of the votes, falling short of the 75% required for election.

John made 31 starts for the Dodgers in 1976, posting a 10-10 record, a 3.09 ERA, 91 strikeouts, 61 walks, and 207 hits allowed in 207 innings. The next year, he won 20 games for the first time in his career, finishing with a 20-7 record. He finished second behind Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton in voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

His incredible achievement through 14 years after the UCL reconstruction changed the definition of the surgery. And with this success, Dr. Jobe went on to treat several pitchers with the procedure.

Dr. Jobe’s first published report of Tommy John Surgery was in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1986. He would refer to the surgery as ‘Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction of the elbow using ipsilateral palmaris longus tendon graft.’ He was repeating this description so often that he eventually began simplifying it:

“The surgery I performed on Tommy John.”

That then evolved to Tommy John Surgery. Players now even further simplify it as TJ surgery.

Since TJ, more than 2,600 players have gone through this procedure. But before 1995, that number was less than 100.

Jacob deGrom created history by becoming the first pitcher to win a Cy Young Award after the surgery. In fact, many other prominent pitchers, from Shohei Ohtani to Tarik Skubal, from Chris Sale to Jonny Venters, achieved incredible success after the surgery. But John was the first to show the world that it was possible. 

Beyond the diamond, he is remembered as kind and friendly. Back in 1981, a reporter covering UNC found him exceptionally chatty. 

Tommy John had quite a long and unscheduled interview with Chip Alexander. He discussed almost everything from his childhood days to his career-saving surgery. This was quite incredible for someone who was once prevented from delivering his high school valedictory address because of his stuttering problem. 

The league remembers Tommy John

After Sunday’s news, the Los Angeles Dodgers shared their condolences via a statement:

“The Los Angeles Dodgers would like to express our sadness over the passing of Tommy John, who died Saturday at the age of 83. Thanks in no small part to the pioneering surgery that bears his name, Tommy’s extraordinary career encompassed 26 seasons and 288 career victories. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends.”

But it’s not just the teams that he played with, but also the ones who understood Tommy John’s contributions and the risk that he took.

“It’s certainly sad, but his name will live forever in baseball. He changed a lot of careers because of what he did, especially after coming back from the surgery. We’ve got this thing (operation) figured out these days, but it was revolutionary for him. I’m sure there was probably a lot of unknown and fear going into it because it was so innovative. It took courage, and I applaud him for that. So many players, like myself, are now connected to his name because of the same procedure,” wrote San Diego Padres pitcher Casey Mize, who underwent TJ surgery in June 2022.

The Bionic Man won 37 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1977 to 1978 and then 43 for the New York Yankees from 1979 to 1980, for a cumulative four-year record of 80-35. That’s success after surgery.

Dodgers president and CEO, Stan Kasten, wrote, “Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” while reiterating his impact on ballplayers.

Tommy John played in three World Series – in 1977 and 1978 with the Dodgers and in 1981 with the Yankees – even though he couldn’t win the ring. In fact, the then-Dodgers manager, Alston, had credited John for ending their 8-season WS drought in 1974, where he couldn’t appear because of the injury.

Jake Irvin, the Washington Nationals pitcher, who went through the surgery in October 2020, also shared his gratitude:

“He revolutionized the game of baseball. For somebody like me who went through that injury in the Minors, a guy like that was able to pave the way to allow me to extend my career for a really long time. I just think that it went from a death sentence to something now that has become a potentially really big light in somebody’s career.”

In May 2023, Chicago White Sox pitcher Davis Martin went through TJ, and in July 2023, it was Colorado Rockies pitcher Gabriel Hughes. Both of them have shared how grateful they are for all that TJ did.

Tommy John had pitched for 26 seasons. Nolan Ryan is the only one to last longer than him in modern-day baseball. He led the AL in shutout thrice and recorded more wins than many who are in the HoF.

Had it not been for Tommy John, the history of baseball could be different. If the surgery had come a little earlier, too. Because it could have reclaimed the lost career of Sandy Koufax, the Dodger left-hander who retired at 30 because of unbearable elbow pain.

The person who immortalized a surgery and transformed one of the biggest setbacks into a success story in baseball passed away on August 15, 2026. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl Beecher Zeldin, and three children from his first marriage, Tommy III, Travis, and Tamara Mannelly, along with a sister, Marilyn Hyde, and two grandchildren.

The legend had been suffering from bladder cancer since 2024 and was put in hospice care. He developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome after a long fight with COVID-19 and ultimately lost the battle at the age of 83. 

Dodger Stadium shared its tribute to Tommy John by playing a 4-minute video and following a moment of silence before Sunday’s game. We, too, thank him for being the staunch character and saving the sport for himself and more than 2,600 other pitchers.