Tommy John, pitcher whose surgery changed baseball, dies at 83
Why it matters: The elbow reconstruction that bears his name has extended thousands of careers, from amateurs to stars like Shohei Ohtani.
Tommy John, the former major league pitcher whose comeback from a then-radical elbow operation transformed baseball medicine, died Saturday at his home in Florida. He was 83 and had been in hospice care, his agent Mike Maguire said. John won 288 games over a 26-year career from 1963 to 1989 and pitched for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels and Oakland Athletics. In 1974, Dodgers physician Frank Jobe replaced a torn elbow ligament with a tendon from John’s right forearm, a procedure that had never before restored a pitcher’s career. John returned to win more than 160 more games, and the operation later became known across the sport as Tommy John surgery.