Tommy John

Thomas Edward "Tommy" John Jr. was born on 22 May 1943 in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Thomas Edward John Sr. and Ruth Kathryn Woods John. On Terre Haute sandlots and at Spencer F. Ball Park, a family friend and former minor-league pitcher, Arley Andrews, taught him the curveball that scouts would later call a major-league pitch. At Gerstmeyer High School he went 28-2 on the mound, starred in basketball, and graduated in 1961 as valedictorian. Faculty barred him from delivering the valedictory address because of a stutter he later overcame. Recruited by Adolph Rupp's Kentucky basketball program and others, he chose baseball and signed with the Cleveland Indians.

After minor-league seasoning he debuted on 6 September 1963. Traded to the Chicago White Sox in a January 1965 three-team deal, he became a rotation regular and 1966 Opening Day starter, led the American League in shutouts in 1966 and 1967, and made his first All-Star team in 1968 with a 1.98 ERA before a fight with Detroit's Dick McAuliffe tore shoulder ligaments and ended his season. A 1971 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen remade him. Pitching coach Red Adams told him to trust his sinking fastball. John won 11, then 16, then was 13-3 with a league-leading .813 winning percentage in 1974 when, on 17 July against Montreal, he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow throwing a sinker to Hal Breeden.

Dodgers physician Dr. Frank Jobe offered an experimental reconstruction that had usually been reserved for wrists and hands, estimating roughly 100-to-1 odds of pitching again. On 25 September 1974 Jobe replaced the ruined ligament with a tendon from John's right forearm. A second procedure rerouted a damaged ulnar nerve. John missed all of 1975, taped numb fingers so he could grip a ball, and repeated Luke 1:37 ("For with God, nothing shall be impossible") through lonely wall throws. He returned on 16 April 1976, the first pitcher to start after UCL reconstruction, earned The Sporting News NL Comeback Player of the Year and the Fred Hutchinson Award, then went 20-7 in 1977 (Cy Young runner-up) and helped the Dodgers to consecutive World Series. Writers called him "the Bionic Man."

As a free agent he signed with the New York Yankees and posted back-to-back 20-win seasons (21-9 in 1979; career-high 22-9 in 1980). In August 1981 his toddler son Travis fell three stories at a New Jersey Shore vacation home and lay in a coma for weeks; John stayed near the hospital, pitched home games, and asked the nation to pray. Travis recovered fully and threw out a playoff first pitch. John appeared in three Dodgers-Yankees World Series (always on the losing side) with a 2.67 ERA in 33.2 World Series innings. Stints with the California Angels and Oakland Athletics followed before New York brought him back; at 45 he became baseball's oldest player after Phil Niekro's retirement, and in 1989 he matched Deacon McGuire's then-record 26 seasons before his final appearance on 25 May. Career line: 288-231, 3.34 ERA, 2,245 strikeouts, 4,710.1 innings, 700 starts, 46 shutouts. He won 124 games before surgery and 164 after.

He broadcast for the Twins and Yankees, managed the Bridgeport Bluefish (2007-mid-2009), and founded the "Let's Do It" Foundation after son Taylor's 2010 death from a seizure and heart failure linked to a prescription-drug overdose. He married Sally Simmons on 13 July 1970; they raised Tamara, Tommy III, Travis, and Taylor, and divorced in 2013. He later married Cheryl Beecher Zeldin (15 January 2021, La Quinta, California). Terre Haute renamed Spencer Field for him in 2013; in 2014 he finally delivered a Gerstmeyer valedictory; in 2022 he donated his original surgery cast to the Smithsonian. Hall of Fame writers never elected him (peak 31.7% in 2009); Veterans/Era committees likewise fell short through 2025. On 8 August 2026 the Yankees posted his farewell from Bradenton. He died at home on 15 August 2026, aged 83, after hospice care, surrounded by Cheryl and family. A celebration of life was set for 12 September 2026 in Bradenton, with memorial gifts directed to Duke's Tommy John Fund.