Former Yankees pitcher Tommy John passed away last night in his Florida home in Lakewood Ranch, according to a statement released by his agent Mike Maguire this morning. The news comes just eight days after he had penned a goodbye to the fans and the baseball community, published on his behalf by the New York Yankees on Old Timers’ Day, amid reports that he was in hospice care. He was 83 years old. The Yankees, the Dodgers, and Major League Baseball confirmed the news.
A native of Terre Haute, Indiana,
John pitched for a remarkable 26 seasons (1963-89), including eight with the Yankees (1979-82, 1986-89); we ranked him 65th on our Top 100 Yankees countdown a few years back. He made his MLB debut with Cleveland, the team that signed him out of high school, on September 6, 1963, before being traded to the White Sox following the 1964 season. Across seven seasons on the South Side, he established himself as one of the top pitchers in the game, leading the league in shutouts in back-to-back seasons before earning his first career All-Star nod in 1968.
After a down year in 1971, he was traded to the Dodgers, where he entered baseball immortality — not just from his performance on the field, but from what he overcame. On July 17, 1974, in the midst of his best season since 1968, John felt “strangest sensation [he] had ever known” as his arm went dead; speaking about the incident later, he would say, ““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.” Although he didn’t know it at the time, that feeling was the “pop” that meant his ulnar collateral ligament had torn.
At the time, the injury was a career-ender. However, Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers’ team physician, attempted a surgery that had never been done on an elbow before, replacing the UCL in John’s left elbow with a ligament from his right wrist. After a long recovery that required an additional surgery to reroute the ulnar nerve, John returned to the mound on April 16, 1976 — and changing baseball forever.
John pitched for 14 more seasons after receiving the surgery that takes his name, including all eight of his years in pinstripes. He retired after the 1989 season — his age-46 campaign! — embarking on a career as a television analyst, college and minor league baseball coach, and a motivational speaker. The last was pretty big accomplishment, as he had a stutter growing up, and was shamefully even forbidden from speaking at his high school graduation despite being the valedictorian because of it.
While John never made it into Cooperstown despite his long career and pioneering efforts, he unquestionably goes down as one of the most important players to have ever played the game. His courage to brave an experimental surgery and resilience to engage in a year-long recovery from near-paralysis to return to the big-league mound revolutionized sports medicine and has made possible the careers of countless pitchers, and more than a handful of position players, who would otherwise have seen their dreams cut short.
Rest in peace, Tommy; we wish your family the best.
After the news was announced, the Yankees and Major League Baseball released the following statements:
