This post is part of a media project called SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number, and consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.
The most obvious choices for No. 25:
Gail Goodrich: UCLA basketball and Los Angeles Lakers
Tommy John: Los Angeles Dodgers
Jim Abbott: California Angels
Troy Glaus: UCLA baseball and Anaheim Angels
Norm Van Brocklin: Los Angeles Rams
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 25:
Rafer Johnson: UCLA basketball
Paul Westphal: Aviation High of Manhattan Beach, USC basketball
JK McKay: USC football
Frank Howard: Los Angeles Dodgers
The most interesting story for No. 25:
Tommy John: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1972-74, 1976-78), California Angels pitcher (1982 to 1985)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Inglewood (The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic at Centinela Hospital, known today as the Cedars Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Santa Monica); Downey (Rancho Los Amigos Hospital); Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium), Anaheim (Angels Stadium)
Reference books on the subject:
“T. J.: My 26 Years in Baseball,” by Tommy John with Dan Valenti, 1992
“Athletic Forever: The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic Plan for Lifetime Fitness,” by Frank Jobe, 1999
“The Sally and Tommy John Story: Our Life in Baseball,” by Sally John, 1983
“The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports,” by Jeff Passan, 2016
“Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Survival Guide,” by Dr. Tommy John with Myatt Murphy, 2018
The statistical snapshot of Tommy John’s career on the Baseball Reference website shows 26 years as a Major League Baseball pitcher. It starts at age 20 in Cleveland in 1963. It goes to age 46 in New York in 1989.
The data is somewhat neatly split into two distinct hemispheres.
The first 12 seasons include his first three years in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. The last 14 start with three more LAD seasons as well as turning as a California Angel. The highlighted notation that divides the two parts in 1975 reads: “Did not play in major or minor leagues (Eponymous Surgical Procedure).”
If something is eponymous, it means that a person, place or thing is named after someone. Tommy John Surgery, when compared to the Donner Pass or the Washington Monument, may be far more ubiquitous to anyone who really focuses on how it is eponymous.
There is an official entry (along with the phonetics) in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
The integrity of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament — aka, UCL — is often defined in MLB history as before or after Tommy John was connected to it. Someone had to be first, trusting a doctor creative and brave enough to try something. What did Tommy John have to lose?
Continue reading “No. 25: Tommy John (and Dr. Frank Jobe)”
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