Tommy John

The weekend is back upon us. Happy Friday. Friday Friday, another addition of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, because hey, four hours a night in the overnight or not enough. We thank you for finding the podcast, subscribing to the podcast, telling friends about the podcast. We do this eight days a week in a spinoff of the Overnight Show. An overnight show, so every Friday we try to catch up with someone that we like or someone that we know, and it's a chance to do something we don't normally

do in the overnight. We don't normally do that, we don't have an opportunity to have people come and hang out with us. We're on the middle of the night. Management wants us to do a show around calls and and hot takes and so that's what we do. So this is a chance to get out of our Norman this week. I am excited. Now. I am a baseball guy. I'm a baseball guy, and I remember as a kid watching baseball. This is the guy we have on today.

Is a person that I watched as a kid. He was at the end of his career, but is someone that is in a very small, very small group of people in the history of the modern world that has had a medical procedure named after them. And I am referring to Tommy John. Now, if you're of a certain age, you know who Tommy John is. But if you're younger, you're like, I know Tommy John, Tommy John surgery. Yeah,

he's the guy that was patient zero for Tommy John surgery. Obviously, and that has become the norm if you have an arm injury. Tommy John surgery is just a routine procedure. But it wasn't. It was an exploratory procedure when Tommy John was pitching. Played twenty six years in the big leagues,

a lot of years with the Yankees. Pitched mostly with the Yankees, the White Sox, and the Dodgers, along with some other stops along the way and when games he's not being in the Hall of him I'm actually gonna make my pitch here because wins twenty six years. People say that's not enough, but I will make my pitch to Tommy the man himself. Why. I think he's got a strong case to get in for the Veterans Committee for the Hall of Fame. And we'll obviously get to

the medical procedure as well. So I am excited to talk to a baseball legend of my youth, someone I grew up watching. I was watching this Weekend Baseball and Tommy John would change teams. Mel Allen was in twib notes. We'll talk about Tommy John is on the move, and we are joined by the man, the myth, the legend himself, the great Tommy John, joining us here on the fifth Hour with Ben Mallory. Tommy, welcome, and let's start with this. How have you been What have you been up to

here recently? How long is the show? Do you have enough time? Oh? We have endless amounts of time. Tommy, please come on, this is a podcast. We can go forever. Okay, December, I contracted COVID and my wife the same thing. We both had COVID and I fell out of bed, hit my head on the end table, on the on the nightstand, cut my head open, Take me to the hospital, patch me up. Three days later I fall again. They I've

been to the hospital. This this happened five times. And you know, as I'm getting, as I'm getting over COVID and all that, um, I contracted a thing called gian Barre syndrome. And if you look it up, gian Barre syndrome paralyzes your lower extremities. Wow, you've had a tough time here recently. And then um, well it's just you know, but I'm over it now. And despite what Dr Fauci says, I'm not going to get vaccinated because I've got all the antibodies and in my body. And my wife had

COVID also, and she had pneumonia with her. But you know, so, so what was it? I mean, tell me, iously, you're you're a little older now, you you play a long time in the big leads. How how bad was your experience with COVID or obviously you said you had a lot of side effects. You filled down a lot. I mean, how you've been sick before. I'm sure at other point in your life, like, how does this rank among other illnesses that you had? Well, let me put it to

you this way. I came within a phone call of dying. Wow. My wife. My wife called the hospital out here and said, you gotta he's gotta have because they worked attacking the problem, you know. Oh well, yeah, he's okay, so send him home. To send him home. They finally said, you know, look if we can't keep him here, so we're gonna send

him to a nursing home in Banning. Wow. And my wife gets on the phone and shell calls a doctor at usc Keeck Medical Center and gave him all my all my information and she and he said, whoa, he's got a blood clot someplace. So they sent a in an ambulance for me from Indio to check, which is about hour and minute drive. I get in, They take me right into the operating room. They put a capital uh through my growing into my lungs and I had two huge blood clots on both lobes of my my line,

upper and lower. Wow. And once they broke it up, all of a sudden, my breathing came back and I so I had this lady that is my wife. She saved my life because if I would have listened to the hospital here in tom Springs, I probably would be dead right now. Wow, I mean you weren't kidding, Tommy. You were not kidding when you when you said you had a lot to say. That is uh, that is an amazing roller coaster. I did not I got when I was very excited, you know, I'm I'm really I

was looking forward this. I did not expect that. I had no idea that any of this happened to you. I feel so terrible that you had to go through that, Tommy. That's horrible man. But you know, um, like I said, Cheryl and I both have the handad bodies in our system, and so um yeah, all the all the craft that's going on now, I just I shake my head and you know, yeah, it can't be that tough. It really can. Well, um, it's always tough to transition. I I I know, I

want to talk baseball talk. I don't know, you know, I mean, is that okay? Alright? Alright? Um, I guess. I mean you've been through a lot of medical stuff here recently. How much how much baseball do you still watch these days? And you played like almost thirty years in the big leagues. None I watched none. Yeah, and why is that? It's not the game that I played? Yeah, and you play You've got all these computer geniuses and

the analytics and all this. I would have a manager or a pitching coach call one pitch for me and make me throw it. I'd walk off the mound, throw my glove at him and say see you later. I'll pitch the way I want to pitch, the way I feel I have to pitch, not the way some numbers said that. You know, yeah, at plus who was it? Um might have been last year how to shut out? And he got two out in the seventh inning and

they pulled him out of the game. You would have put you you would have tried to pull me out of the game with a shutout and two outs in the seventh inning. There would have been a fist fight on the mountain. Yeah, and you but you know, it's

just it's not played the same way. Yeah. And what about when did the You'd be the perfect guy to ask to because you played in the sixties and the seventies and the eighties, when would the when did the hundred pitch thing become the barometer where if you get around a hundred pitches, you gotta get out of the game. You can't be in the game anyway. Was that around in your days or did that start you know, started a little a little after me, okay, And I don't

know why. Maybe they looked at the number of pitches that the guys threw and when they started to fall you know, when they're pitching abilla, they started to fall off, and it was around the hundred pitch mark. I but you know how to get out of that now it's through the hundred pitches. Yeah, I threw a baseball off the mound to a catcher every day I was on the field. I didn't pitch the night threw And the more you throw like that, the more you your I

get stronger. Yeah, what's the most get stronger? How do you how do you get your arms? It's not lifting weights, it's not doing bands, it's not doing towel drills, it's not doing all this. It's throwing a baseball. Yeah, what's the most time? What's the most pitches? You know? I don't know, they didn't really, I guess keep pitch counts. Earlier in your career, I would think, but what's the most pitches you were called throwing roughly like a ballpark

figure in it. Wow, that's it's like double what they more than double what they do the days. And what about now you pitch twenty six years in the big things and so now the big thing. And I loved your I agree with you on analyst. I'm not totally against analysts, but I think there has to be field of the game that has to be part of it.

And it's got two are to analytics. But when you would get through the third time through the order, like you know, that's that's always the big thing these days with the people freak out when you go through the third time through, Like what was your mindset back in those days, because now it's like people start losing their mind when you have to get to that third time through the order. No, I'll knew what I threw these guys. Um. I had a manager back with the White Sox. His

name was Eddie Stanky. He knew nothing about pitching, nothing, but he called me in I I pitched the game against the Yankees. He called me into the office the next day and he said, young man, sit down here, and I went, oh god, what did I do? He said, let's go over last night's game. Okay, what do you first hit? Or what do you do? Uh? Grounded the short stop. What was the count? Uh? Uh? And I couldn't get four or five innings and I couldn't go.

He said, Okay, we're gonna do this again. You should be able to go through first hitter to your last hitter and go. The count was three and two and and that showed me there that I can face you four times. And just because I'm facing you four times doesn't mean that you've got a better chance to hit hit me. It's if I make good pitches, it's going to be the same. You're gonna have a hard time hitting me. Yeah, but if I make mistakes. If I make mistakes, then whether it's the first time or the

fifth time or whatever, you're going to hit the ball hard. Yeah. And it's always that guessing game, right. I mean, you, as the picture have the advantage because you know the hitter doesn't know what's coming you. You know what you're gonna pitch, so you have the you know. And the thing that I did is I I um, if I got you out and I got you on sinkers and your your third time up and I hadn't thrown you a curveball yet. Why would I throw you a curveball

If I'm getting you out with sinkers away? You have not adjusted to my pitches. You know, pitching is adjustment. You throw a sinker away and the right hander goes out there and maybe doesn't hit it, but goes after it blowing away. Okay, now you gotta get him back off that, so you gotta throw something up and end middle end curveball in you know you you you gotta keep him away from the outside corner. And uh, it's just it's just keeping track of what you of what

you're doing. You know, you faced the guy two times you go slinker. You're throwing in fifteen pitches all slinkers, and now you go out and you throw him a got off a curveball. It's probably gonna take it because he hasn't seen it. So why would you throw him curveball? First pitch, second pitch? You throw it where you got two strikes. So yeah, yeah, for sure, I'm right. I'm right there with you. I mean, you know better than

any but you did it. You lived the life for for all those years and and and since you've retired, you know, back in the eighties. Now it's gone completely the opposite where they like they have this defeatist attitude with pictures where if you get to a hundred pitchers, you gotta take you out of the game, and if you can't go third times through the lineup. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Miller Show weekdays

at two am. But isn't it more of an issue Tommy, where it's like the the pictures today when they're coming up in high school and in college and the minor leagues, they're they're taught this, like this is what they know, right you were You were not taught this? You Yeah, well, you're absolutely like they're they're taught three times through, they're done. So when you lower the bar of expectations, you will

pitch to those expectations. Yeah, for sure. Um, and now some of the other things, and you say, don't watch baseball anymore. It's a different game. But I know you're aware that they added a a ghost runner. They're gonna get rid of it next year, they say, but they've the last two years here they've had a ghost runner in extra inning stuffy that just a runner magically appears at second base when you get to the tenth inning.

It's very, very bizarre. And what was the reasoning on that, Well, they didn't want the games to go They thought the games are going too long long, and they said they you know, they used how is that, I think I'm part called more strikes. Yeah, the strike zone, Yo, strike one, strike two, ye, strike three, You're gone, let's go boom next guy. But they've got the strike zone so tight. Uh, it's just you know, and then they then they want

the games to go along quicker. Well that's hard to do, yeah, but it's it's almost like they want both things though, because they want, you know, for television, for the for television, they need to sell commercial times, so they need the games to go a certain amount of time. But then they also say, well, it's like the pace of the game and all that. But I'm right there. You know, obviously you're biased time because you're pitched as a strike.

You want the bigger strikes. But I agree. I think one of the biggest problems with baseball is every hitter now you get paid to walk. That's as big as thing. You know, home runs and what the read true outcomes to baseball? Home run, walk, strike out for hitters these days, that's the analytical crowd and and nobody. And the other thing is nobody ever chokes up on the bat, Tommy.

This this drives me insane. When you have you know, runner on third base and you know, two outs, runner onund segment whatever, they don't just choke up trying to get a base in. They're still trying to hit the ball to the upper deck. It drives me nut to drive. Yeah, you're absolutely correct, Yeah, it's it's frustrating. Um So, now you you came up with Cleveland, correct. I mean I think of you as a Dodger and a Yankee, you know when I was, you know, a kid, but you

you can't play with the Yankees. You mentioned the White Sox the Cleveland Indians last week and asked they will no longer be the Cleveland Indians. They're changing their name to the Cleveland Guardians. As someone that came up with the Cleveland Indians, Tommy, what was your reaction to that news. I just this whole thing is is so screwed up. Uh M. A Indian is an Indian. There's nothing racial about it. That's what they are. They're in India. You

know a guide born in India. He's an Indian. Yeah, you're an Indian. Uh, You're you have Native American blood in you. You're an Indian. It doesn't mean that you're going to scalp somebody for peace's sake. But I think I think he's got to get his head out of it. But too, I'm not a big fan Rob Manford. You the community, I'm right there with you. I'm right he's done. Boy, We've I've sent a lot of nights Tommy on the overnight ranting and raving about Rob Manford the commissioner of

of Baseball. So yeah, but I don't see it changing anytime. A lot of stuff going on right now. It just is yeah, wild, But I think we're on the the same page on some of that. So when when I was when I was younger, you remember you played with the Yankees, uh and in the Dodgers. As I said, when I was a kid, and you played for the Yankees in the eighties and the seventies with with George Steinbrenner as the owner, I heard amazing tales as a kid about you know how crazy George Steinbrenner was as

an owner. How wild he was when you were playing for the Yankees. You do you have a really good story about George Steinbrenner. Is that all media hype and it's not true the way it's portrayed and the way I read it as a kid. Nope, it's true. So really what it was the Bronze When I was where it was, I uh oh. We were in Fort Lauderdale with the Yankees trained in Fort Lauderdale and Hank Steinbrenner,

Hank ran George's horse farm up in o'calla Lada. Hank was out are saying, these salaries are so high there, this is that, And I said, hey, who talk to your old man. He's the one running the prices up. He hands out these big contracts. He said, I know he doesn't have an F and clue. And I said, now you said that I didn't. But George was a

football man. He didn't play football. He was like a student manager in college or something, and he hung around the football teams and coaches, and he tried to run a baseball team like you do a football team. Well in football, you know, it's kind of set in stone what you do, and and he uh, if you go back on the nineteen one World Series Game six, Yankee Stadium, I'm pitching. I give up the first run of the World Series that I gave up in the top of

the fourth inning. Yeah, fib and the fourth inning they pinched it for me. I'm going crazy. And I find out later from a guy that was like a I and the Sky. For the Yankees, Steinbrenner's rule was get a lead early and then go to the bullpen. Win it out of the bullpen. And Bob Lemon, being a good trooper, he wanted to get a lead. So the score was tied one to one. Bob or the fourth we had two runners on two out, pitcher coming up. They pin ship for me and I asked women, I said, um,

who who's coming in? He said George Fraisier. I said, shut lim Frasier. Haven't gotten anybody out all series. You're going to don't tell me out a minute And I said, well, I'm just telling you he hasn't gotten anybody out. And then who would you bring in? I said, well, you're taking out your starter, which is your night's best pitcher, the day's best pitcher, and you're saying that it's the seventh or eighth inning. Who would you bring in in the seventh or eighth inning of football game? I bring

Gaussie Gin. Then I'd bring gassie Gin right now. But he can't go all the way. Uh. He goes two or three innings, and then you go to the next guy and then you work your way through the ball game. If you're going to you're going to manage like that. But that was how George, George would have these um Fox like they do. Well, we're gonna we're gonna run the fullback over left tackle. Uh, he's not real good. You know. Well that's football and baseball is totally different, pitching,

hitting and all that. But that's the way George ran the game. And he he just he was very demanding. But I like the guy I played for him. Again, Yeah, yes I can't because he's dead. Well, that's true. That would be That would be amazing, though, Tommy, if you came back and pitched and he came back and owned a team, that would be uh, I would be yeah. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports radio and the I Heart Radio app. Hey

it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob Parker on the I Heart Radio app

or wherever you get your podcast. So, So, now this is why So in those days and you played in the days where you know the guys that the players, even though you respected the other player, right, you were not buddy buddy with the You had rivalries, right, guys that weren't and you weren't hanging out with each other all the time. That's the perception I had you. You lived the life. But you went from the Dodgers to

the Yankees and they were a pretty big rival. How how awkward was that going from from l A. You pitched in a World Series with the Dodgers against the Yankees, and then you ended up going to the Yankees and pitching against the Dodgers in the World Series. How how odd was that? Um? I called friends that I knew, Uh, in the league, who's got the best endfield? The offensive endfield? And everybody said, well the Yankees. Um, you know, Chamblis, Randolph,

Bucky Dent and Nettles there. The Brewers are good, but the Yankees are better. Okay, all right? Because I wanted guys that could field the ball because they're going to get a lot of balls hit to them. And so that's how I made my choice. And and like I said, I would do it again. But it's just I don't know. Stif was a character, a big character. But the guy that I loved playing for was Losorda and I only

played two seasons for him, Sevenday seven. And yeah, that's what I want to ask you, because Tommy, I I started covering as a baseball reporter when I was in radio. I my first gig, one of my first gigs as a reporter was covering Losorda. But I saw Tommy at the end of his career, the last few years he managed the Dodgers. I covered the Dodgers, and and I know, you know, Tommy was like a bigger than life character then.

But what was it like when he was starting his his run with the the It was a young Tommy los sort of like before he became the established over the top personality. I always had the personality, But what was it like before he became a legend if you will? He uh, he was the cheapest s O B in the world. He never paid for a meal. He'd have um and now he's getting the same meal money that we're getting m hm. And he just he would find somebody to pick his breakfast tab up or lunch or whatever.

But he was he was good at that, really good at that. Yeah, And I remember he has been around him a little bit, like he knew everybody and everybody loved him and so like I remember, there would be at one time. I'm sure this happened a lot when you were there, probably back in there, but but Frank Sinatra showed up and this was big. You know, Frank was late in his life and he showed up there

and that was like a huge deal and stuff. So, I mean, he knew all the big celebrities of the day and they all wanted to like hang out with him. It was the wild, wild experience. And I guess in the old days when the Dodgers first came out here, the Hollywood stars, when all that would be at Dodger Stadium all the time. But Wald Alfston, being the stuff coat that he was, um didn't make them feel welcome. So um they wet coming. And when La Sorta came, Yeah, I used to go down in his office and just

see who was there. And you would see run Maysak all the time. He would come down there, and I mean guys that you would never put the two guys. When Losorda's daughter got married, we had the wedding ceremony and reception. I can't think of the he was a player with Dodgers, and we had everything at his house and it was supposed to start. Let's say at seven o'clock. Well, now it's like and nobody has shown up yet, Big Limo pulls up out, gets Sinatra and his wife, and

John Rickles and his wife. Now the wedding ceremony started. Then the reception. Rickles did thirty minutes of comedy and Sinatras saying and all that but you. When my son Tommy was born, he's got a sterling silver cup. Tommy, Welcome to our world. Our world, Barbara and France's Sinatra. That's great. That is that's awesome. That's that's pretty cool. So I mean that's just that's living. And you live

that life with the Dodger. I'm sure when you're with the Yankees there were celebrities that would go to those games too, right, I mean that was yeah, the future may Oh he was the only one. Okay, all right down there. They didn't want to go to the Bronx in those days. They didn't want to not. Yeah, So so listen, I as a basebook, I want to talk. I want to talk about the Hall of Fame a little bit. I mean, because I know the writers, the

dope writers didn't vote you in. They get I think the most you got was like thirty one percent or something like that. But there's still the Veterans Committee. There's still a chance you can get the Hall of Fame. Have you heard from any of those people from the Veterans Committee? Have you? Hasn't we reached out to you? Uh, because I think you've got a pretty compelling case. But

I'm slightly biased because I like you. But have you heard from anybody on that over the years since you ran out of eligible years you have not no, so make make your pitch right now. You know. He's the thing. I won two ball games, uh pits twenty six years the two wins. I had the most no decisions in the history of baseball A no decisions. Well I didn't know that. Yeah, so you know, okay, no decisions a quarter of the uh, that's forty wins on that's halfway,

you know. I mean it's just people look at and they said, well, he pitched along time, he should have all those wins. Really really, that's not just because you pitched a long time doesn't mean that that you're gonna win. It just means that you pitched a long time. Sure, sure, and uh and I looked. I looked at the Baseball Reference, the stat website, and they have this thing called the Hall of Fame monitor, and they say the Hall of Famer just on this thing they said Hall of Famer

as a score of a hundred. You had a score of a hundred and twelve for your pitching, So according to that, you're Hall of Famer. I know a lot of the How frustrating it though, Tommy, I know, you know it's a Hall of fames. They wet fine, whatever, but some of the guys you pitched with who were of a similar look, like bly Levin pitched in your you know, at the end of your your run there and Don Sutton. These guys are in the in the

Hall of Fame, so well, you know. Obviously there was a sports rider and I confronted him on it after I came back from surgery. I had a hundred and sixty four wins to less than kofas one in his career and that's after you had unbelievably experimental surgery. Yeah. Yeah, And the sportswriters said, yeah, but Sandy's wins were better than you. That here, what's the zeal you know? And okay, was it more strikeouts? Yea? Was it fewer hits? Yes? But it's a win. A win is a win. He

he started the game to win. I started the game to win, and I won two less games than he did, but his were better. When when the guy told me that, I just thought to myself, that tells me how little I know about the Yeah is it? It's also a lot of this is a popularity contest, right like who you the if the writers like and love you and just kind of sucked up to him a little bit. That helps you out. That's also seems to be part

of the Hall of Fame fame process. But and you finished You didn't win a cy young, but you finished second twice. Right you were you were, and you were at the top ten a bunch of times, so you had you were right among the top pitchers in baseball for for a good stretch of time there. Uh, but I can't talk to Tommy John without talking about the surgery,

which is in nineteen seventy four. So you know, I'm a you know, I'm I'm middle aged now, but I was a young guy obviously, you know when this this happened, even before I was around. So kind of paint the picture for those lists and Tommy that we're not we're not around. Like, what was it like in those days when you had an injury like this? Did they just say that's it, go get a job, you're done. I mean, was there anything they could do before this or what what led you to go down this path to have

this radical surgery. At the time, well, I've hurt my arm, and Dr Job said, well, let's give it about three weeks reps and then we'll start back and see maybe wee and wuck out and it'll heal and you won't need uh surgery. Okay, you know I had. He never said what kind of surgery or whatever? You won't need surgery. Well, I rested three weeks, came back and I threw a little bit, and I just I couldn't throw. My arm hurt, the elbow hurt. So then we sit down and we

just had like a father and son talk. Um. I said, okay, you're my dad. What would you do? He said, well, you've torn a ligament in there. Now nine there were no m R s. All they had were X rays and X rays only. They only h X ray bone, not muscle or tendons or ligaments. But Dr job mandiculated my arm and he said, yeah, you can see here that joint is really loose. Um. You you know you've torn the ligament. I said, okay, what do you do

to fix it? He said, well, there's a ligament transplant surgery that I've done on polio patients, but I've never done it. You know, I've never done it on a baseball player. And I said, well, that's the only way I'm going to get back to pitch again. Isn't it, and he said probably. And I said, okay, then let's get it done. Let's do it. And and I've read tom I mean you were not he was not very confident you would be able to come back. I mean

the odds were not in your favor at least. I've read some stories on this and they they didn't really know, right, Doctor Job didn't know And this was said they had no idea what was going to happen. M Yeah, they had no idea what what was going to happen? And um, but I had the utmost confident and Frank Job, it's Dr Joe would have told me we can we can

fix this. But here's how we're gonna do it. You go gather all your German shepherd's poops and put him in a bucket and go back a second base at Dodgers Stadium and dig a hole and bury those poops back there and your armor heel. I would have done it because I believed a thousand per cent and Frank Job if he told me, Tommy, I really don't think you can pitch. I think you should look for In fact, he told me, he said, do you have another job to go to or a way of making a living.

If this doesn't work. Oh no, not if this when this doesn't work, is what he said. And I said, yeah, I've got a friend of mine back home. That's um. It's in the car business. And you know I can sell cars, or I can scow, or I can coach your manage in the minor leagues or whatever. I said, I've got ways of making it. But Job, because I was just married and I was operated on the September nineteen seventy four. My first child, Tamara, was born September

nineteen seventy four. So that was why Dr Job wanted me to have a fallback that you know, your first child. You don't want to sit there and and go down the shoot thinking that you're gonna come back when the odds are that you weren't. But I knew that if in fact, I told Dr Job this, I said, if you do your job, I will more than do my job. I will more than do my job. If it takes a year, it's a year. If it takes two years,

it's two years. I said three. Three. No, I wouldn't go three, but you know, and the rest is uh. He did the same surgery two years later on a pictured named Brent Strom m hm and uh Strommy said, if if they do the surgery on the picture and he doesn't come back, it's called Brent Strom surgery. He does come back and pitches, it's called Tommy John surgery. That's great, that's great. And how soon after you had this surgery? I mean you missed the seventy five season, right,

and so when did you know, hey, this thing works? Like, when did you know I can still pitch? I got my arm back. Well, I went out to Arizona, pitched in the Arizona Fall Lake. Uh, I've started seven games in twenty eight days, that's every four days. I was on the mountain pitching and my arm didn't hurt. And I said, well, you know, now was my stuff good? No? Was it? But I found the next year about halfway through the season. You know, the art of pitching. Anybody

can pitch when you've got your best stuff. But the art of pitching is being able to pitch and compete when you don't have your best stuff. And that's what I couldn't do until of about halfway during the seventy sixth season, I started to get the feeling, whoa, okay, I can get You know, you don't throw every fastball you throw, you throw here, hold fastball, you throw one? You I mean you very speech or at least I did. And um, it wasn't until halfway through the seventy six

season that I started to get the confidence. Okay, I can back off my fastball and throw it harder. And here a hard curveball and a slow curveball and a flop curn balls. Um, but it just takes time. But nobody can tell you that. There's no doctor, there's no pitching coach, there's no therapist. They can't they can't tell you that you have to do it on your own. So as we Temmy, as we wind this down here again, Tommy John, what you're one of very few people that

has had a medical procedure named after them. How how odd is it your name is in the news all the time that this is a common procedure now among athletes. And what is it like to be Tommy John? And and a lot of kids, you know, the younger people might not know you who's Tommy John? But I mean your your name is on the surgeon. What's that like? Having lived that and and experiencing that and seeing your

name all over the place. When somebody has this operation, well named it Tommy John surgery was Dr Job and people think I did. I don't. But he would get talks about the surgery and what he did and all this and uh, you know, ligament replacement surgery reconstruction with the Paul Merrith's longest tendant. That's the name of the surgery. And then he said, you know the surgery I did

on Tommy John. You know Tommy John surgery. And when when he said that, the doctors went, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and the look at that replacement okay, bom And that's how it came about. And somebody asked me, They said, why didn't you patent put a patent on it? And I said because of Dr Joe. I couldn't do it. Because of him. I had so much love for him

that I just I couldn't do it. Yeah. It's gonna make you feel good though, right, I mean you you were the first, you know, it's ever having an orthopedic surgery named after you. That a proctological that is that is correct? Yes, I would I would have. I would agree with her surgery. Oh man, we got that one. Yeah, that would not be that would not be as glowing a review for for people. But listen, Tommy, it's been great. You've been unfiltered. I loved watching you pitch when I

was a kid. I'm glad you're you're you're over the COVID, you're doing better now and and uh continued good health. And I hope the Veterans Committee someday put you in the Hall of Fame here, hopefully sooner then later. Because I just li to me, Tommy, I'll make the pitch for you. You're two wins the career you had, and I think the thing that pushes you over the top is the surgery you have saved because you were the

ginea pig. You have saved so many, so many pictures that have gone on and had great careers and Hall of Fame careers that would not have been possible if you had not taken that dive. So I think that should put you in the all of him. But what do I know, right, Tommy, what do I know? I would vote? Call you? Thank you all right, Thanks Tommy, appreciate it, Okay, thanks for having me. Bye bye.