Tommy John, a former Major League Baseball pitcher whose name became synonymous with a pioneering elbow surgery, died Saturday night at the age of 83. His agent, Mike Maguire, confirmed Sunday that John died while in hospice care at his home in Bradenton, Florida.
John played in the major leagues for 26 seasons between 1963 and 1989, recording 288 wins. In 1974, at age 31, he suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his left elbow while pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, such an injury typically ended a pitcher's professional career.
In a first-of-its-kind procedure for a pitcher, Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe replaced John's damaged ligament with a tendon from his right forearm. Although Jobe estimated the odds of success at 100-to-1, John returned to the mound in 1976. He went on to win 164 games after the surgery—more than the 124 games he won prior to the injury.
For the individual athlete, the surgery transformed a career-ending injury into a manageable medical event, though it requires a significant recovery period. After his 1974 operation, John's arm was in a cast for four months, and he spent the entire 1975 season resting and rebuilding strength. Current players facing the surgery typically notice a total loss of competitive play for at least one season as they undergo rehabilitation. John himself expressed concern in 2018 regarding the increasing frequency of the surgery among youth athletes, a sentiment shared by his son, Tommy John III, who wrote a book on preventing major sports surgeries in children.
The success of the 1974 surgery set a precedent for sports medicine, leading to the integration of the term "Tommy John surgery" into the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2019. While John was a four-time All-Star and holds the second-most wins of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame, his name remains most recognized for the medical breakthrough that allowed him to pitch until the age of 46. His original surgical cast was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 2022. No specific memorial dates were reported following the announcement of his death.