1577 - Tribute: Tommy John

Welcome, Dr. James Beckett. Sports card Insights. Another surprise episode. Just found out Tommy John had passed away again. Older than me, but not way older and certainly worthy of honor. Immediately recognizable name in the world of baseball, not just for his excellence, but for the surgery that he courageously exemplified and led the way. So I think he's a future hall of Famer. But first, thanks sponsors Topps Panini, Upper Deck Heritage Auctions, Huggins Scott Auctions, Mike Stadium Sports Cards, Burbank sports cards, compse.com and Beckett Media. Beckett Grading, Beckett Authentication. So Tommy John never going to be confused for Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver. And he wasn't even really Fergie Jenkins, even though they came up at about the same time. And that's not being critical. He was a different kind of pitcher. One of the most unusual careers in baseball history. As I've said, I think it's hall worthy. 26 seasons, 288 victories, 3.34 earned run average, which would lead the league some of these years, pitching until he was 46 years of age. But what interested me about him is that whether or not he gets in the hall of Fame, and I do believe he will, and not just as a plaque about the surgery, but as a player that was worthy of sustained, if not greatness, the longevity can be the greatness. It doesn't have to be that longevity is an absence of greatness. There are not that many guys that get to pitch or play in the big leagues. He got to do it till he was 46. That is pretty amazing. And as an older person myself, I think that's worthy of a lot of credit. But he wasn't overpowering. People weren't going the ballpark because he was pitching. I think he was inspiring. His story is inspiring, but he wasn't necessarily exciting. He wasn't flamboyant, didn't have this Nolan Ryan fastball. But he kept getting batters out. And he did it for a really long time. And they could have easily replaced him with a younger, more live arm, but he was effective, as I said, got to 288 victories. 300. There's magic numbers, and they really shouldn't be magic. Fergie Jenkins, Jim Cott, Tommy John, they're kind of contemporaries, Cot being a little bit older, but they all pitched in the same period. Fergie. Did Fergie have better teams when he had those six consecutive 21 seasons? I don't know. And he did get a Cy Young Award. So Fergie's in. But when Jim Cott gets in and he's an excellent pitcher and one of the greatest fielding pitchers ever. So he had a claim to fame in addition to his longevity, but he got in the hall of Fame and I think Tommy John's going to get in as well. KOT was on three All Star teams, but Tommy John was on four. And I believe MVP or Cy Young top 10 finishes matter to me as well as All Star selections. So again, each of those guys a little bit different, but each of them I think are hall of Fame Fergie, Jim Cott already in. Tommy John, I think he's going to be in. And again, not as a footnote or as a side thing about the surgery, but the surgery is a really big deal. In 1974, he's only 31, he tore a ligament in his pitching elbow and this ahead of his time. Dr. Dr. Frank Joe proposed an operation that never been done to give him a chance to compete again. And I guess he didn't think it was going to work. But Tommy John was willing to put himself through the four hour operation. I've had friends that have had different kinds of operations and the older you get, it's not that the operation is so painful is the recuperation and the recovery is so difficult. So he missed a whole season. But after taking a year off he came back and pitched 14 more seasons and one-of-one more games after than he did before. So he just barely come back. He came back sort of better. He pitched within himself again. You didn't go to the ballpark because he was there, other than you knew he was going to give you a good outing and the manager put him in. I've had elbow problems myself. It's really miserable. Nothing like Tommy John had because I wasn't a major league pitcher. Although when I was a kid I tried to throw curveballs and screwballs and things like that. But just a month after I sold my company back in 05, I had a freak 3 thing where I hyperextended both my elbows and it didn't seem so bad at the time, but I Goldin play golf. The next day. I was in Hawaii when it happened. I could not play golf. I was there at the Kit Young Hawaiian show there and I Goldin play golf so I Goldin brush my teeth very easily. Everything hurt that they put my elbows in a weird position. I tried everything. Dick De Coursey, my good friend, recommended the Graston technique which. Thank you, Dick. It's one of the most painful things. It's where they scrape These metal implements to pool the blood, to draw blood to the injury. That was miserable. But I did chiropractic. I did more than one kind of acupuncture, traditional physical therapy. And I was going. Months went by with no progress. I can't play golf. I'm retired. I can't play golf. Eventually, I had a good friend that said, there's a special trainer who does a lot of golfers, but really understands kinesiology. And so I went to this guy, and this was 20 and a half years ago. I said, my elbows are killing me. It's miserable. It's been six months. Nothing's working. And so he started working with me. In the first hour, he just starts working on my shoulders and my hips and my wrist. And I said, wait, I told you my elbows were the problem. And he starts working on my flexibility, my balance, my strength, my core. When are you going to fix my elbows? And then kept going once a week. And then after a couple months, he said, you haven't mentioned your elbows. Late. I said, oh, wait, that's right. They're not bothering me as much anymore. My point was that there were other limitations I had in my body that caused my elbows to absorb stresses they shouldn't have had to absorb. Now, Tommy John's mechanics, I don't know that they were the problem. Pitching a baseball is a violent motion, especially trying to put spin on it and all that. So I didn't have any Tommy John surgery, but I had a long rehab. And that's the same thing with Tommy John. Yu-Gi-Oh the surgery is a big deal, but the rehab to get back to where you were or even better is something that is beyond exemplary. Talk about inspiring. That is inspiring. So he didn't just survive, he thrived. He built himself in, but he always was a pitcher. I don't think he was ever a flamethrower. He wasn't going to overpower people, but he knew how to pitch ground ball, pitcher, sinker balls. He had a low era, and he was a workhorse. He was an injured workhorse. That's just. It's crazy. Finished second in Cy Young two different times in both different leagues. So he's there not as an act of charity. He's there. And the younger pitchers are cheaper. He's getting older, and he's still out there, in many cases, every fifth day. And that's worth something in my book. So you don't have that longevity unless you're good for a long time. You don't have to be great, but it's like war. It's like wins above replacement. You've got to be better than the guy they're going to bring up from the minor league. So as I said, I think Tommy John's absolutely a Hall of Famer. I think his death now will cause additional scrutiny and it may be a little while because they do them in waves. The last time he got close, kind of you got consideration. But I think he's very comparable to Jim Cott and reasonably comparable to Fergie, who's more solid. Again, for card collectors. It's not going to all of a sudden shoot his cards through the roof. I think there'll be some additional interest, but not huge. He's been around a long time. The only guy that's got more wins, that's not in the hall of Fame is Roger Clemens. And he's got other issues, but he's got a love him and hate him. I don't think anybody hated Tommy John. Dr. Frank Jobe, Rich Klein always talks about having a contributor wing of the baseball hall of Fame like they do in hockey. I'd be all in favor of that and Dr. Frank Jobe would go in there. But I don't want Frank Jobe to go in there without Tommy John. Frank Jobe had to have Tommy John be so successful. Jobe invented the operation. But Tommy John demonstrated Frank Jobe's excellence. He Beckett the right person to go through this, which was, I'm sure, grueling. His rookie cards in 1964, it's a low number, not particularly tough. He played for the Dodgers, he played for the Yankees. And you would think that would increase his hobby visibility, but it doesn't that much. Basically. Early on, for Fanatics, the company is Michael Rubin. And I don't know how he Beckett the name Fanatics, but it's pretty brilliant name of a company because it's for Fanatics, for sports Fanatics. And there's a big difference between followers, like social media followers and Fanatics. Okay. The hobby is not filled up with followers. Yes, there's some followers there, but it's mostly Fanatics. But Tommy John, I'm saying he didn't have that many people that were fanatically pursuing him. A very recognizable name. They would have been followers, they would have appreciated him, they respected him. But I don't know that he was somebody's favorite player unless somebody had an elbow injury, which I had two of them. So are there Tommy John player collectors? I'm sure there are, but I don't know that he'll ever Be a hobby. Great. And that's okay. I think he does deserve to be in the hall of Fame. But you've got glamorous, non hall of Famers sometimes have a lot more hobby demand than a non glamorous hall of Famer. I think Tommy John's going to be a non glamorous hall of Famer. So, Yu-Gi-Oh I think he's worthy, but he's not going to be in the first rank. And you're going to go. When he gets to Cooperstown, I think people are going to go look at his plaque and they're going to be thinking about the elbow, but they can. 288 wins is extremely impressive. And back in those days, the counting statistics were a big deal. He's got a great story, and the hall of Fame needs to be about great stories. The hobby needs to be about collecting your heroes. And I'm just saying, I think there's a bunch of people out there that if they don't already think Tommy John's a hero, they should, based on reviewing his body of work. Not the most exciting pitcher, but he just kept coming. He kept getting hitters out. He stayed in there. That's what I want to do. I want to hang in there. I've actually been going for more than 26 seasons, but they're not as grueling as stepping up to the mound every fifth day. But I want to be known for longevity as well. Who wouldn't? It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. And you have to have a level of talent. And not everybody can be the most talented person, but you have to have enough talent to get in the game. And then your personal skills, perseverance, adaptability, longevity, those are things that need to be appreciated as well. And he had that. So Dr. Frank Job gave him the chance. And Tommy John did something extraordinary with that chance. And as he did that, he gave generations of athletes who came after him something even more valuable. They gave him hope. And I just think that's a story worth collecting. So, Tommy John, thanks for inspiring us. And there's a lot of pictures that thank you for their ongoing career that they had hoped that if they went through what you went through, they would have a chance at coming back if they did the work. And you certainly did the work. So again, thanks for inspiring us.