Tommy John played in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, California Angels, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1989. He was a four-time MLB All-Star.
John's 288 career victories rank as the seventh highest total among left-handers in major league history. He is also known for the surgery, now named after him, which was performed on a damaged ligament in his pitching arm. Over half of John's career wins came after his surgery.
Traded before the 1972 season to the Los Angeles Dodgers for mercurial slugger Dick Allen that began a skein of John's most famous years, first with the Dodgers and subsequently with the New York Yankees, where he posted a pair of 20-win seasons and was twice an All-Star.
John was a sinkerball pitcher and in the middle of an excellent 1974 season, John had a 13–3 record as the Dodgers were en route to their first National League pennant in eight years, before he permanently damaged the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, leading to a revolutionary surgical operation. The surgery, now known as Tommy John surgery, was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe, and it seemed unlikely he would ever be able to pitch again, as he spent the entire 1975 season in recovery. John would work with teammate, pitcher Mike Marshall, who taught John a completely different way to pitch, and returned to the Dodgers in 1976. His 10–10 record that year was considered "miraculous", but John went on to pitch until 1989, winning 164 games after his surgery— one fewer in total than all-time great Sandy Koufax won in his entire career. In 1986, Mark McGwire got two hits off him; McGwire's father was John's dentist. John said of this, "When your dentist's kid starts hitting you, it's time to retire!"
