Tag: jim-abbott

No. 25: Tommy John and Dr. Frank Jobe (and Steve Busby)

fartheroffthewall

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:
“Our Life in Baseball,” by Tommy and Sally John, 1983
“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 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 Tommy John Protocol: How to Rebuild Your Arm, Your Mind, and Your Faith,” by Tejay Antone, 2026

Tommy John is interviewed by NBC’s Tony Kubek as the Dodgers start the 1974 World Series against Oakland without their ace, who shows off the long cast that had been put onto his left arm by Dr. Frank Jobe just weeks earlier.

Tommy John’s 26-season career totals as a Major League Baseball pitcher between 1963 and 1989 unravels like a sales receipt from CVS. Scrunched into a Baseball Reference website template, it breaks up into two distinct hemispheres. The 1975 equator/dividing point clearly reads: “Did not play – injured (Eponymous Surgical Procedure).”

Something is eponymous if a person, place or thing is named after someone. In the world of eponymics, Tommy John Surgery is right there in baseball lore with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the Pesky Pole, the Mendoza Line or the Cy Young Award.

Since 2019, Merriam-Webster dictionary defined it, along with the proper phonetics:

The restoration hardware needed to rebuild the integrity of a Ulnar Collateral Ligament has declared Tommy John to be Patient Zero. Someone had, either out of desperation or a sense of adventure, to trust a doctor’s creative mind, and then be brave enough to try something unorthodox, like a Thema and Louise moment pointed toward the Grand Canyon.

All in all, what did Tommy John have to lose?

Continue reading “No. 25: Tommy John and Dr. Frank Jobe (and Steve Busby)” →