Tommy John, Whose Torn Elbow Changed Baseball Medicine Forever, Dies at 83

Tommy John died Saturday night at his home in Bradenton, Florida, according to his agent, Mike Maguire. He was 83 and had been in hospice care. His family was at his side, Maguire said in a statement confirmed by CBS News.

John won 288 games over a 26-year career that ran from 1963 to 1989, pitching for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the California Angels and the Oakland Athletics, according to the Associated Press. He made four All-Star teams, in 1968, 1978, 1979 and 1989, and finished with a 3.34 ERA and more than 2,200 strikeouts, CBS News reported.

None of that is why most people know his name.

The injury that should have ended his career

In July 1974, John was a 31-year-old Dodgers pitcher who had rebuilt his career around location and movement rather than velocity, going 11-5 the previous season under pitching coach Red Adams, according to the LA Times. Then he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. At the time, that injury was a career killer. Pitchers simply didn't come back from it.

John let Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers' team physician, try something that had never been done on an elbow before: replace the torn ligament with a tendon taken from elsewhere in John's body. Jobe gave the experimental procedure 100-to-1 odds of working, according to the Associated Press.

It worked. John didn't just pitch again. He won 164 more games after the surgery, more than he'd won before it, and finished his career one win short of Sandy Koufax's total, a comparison John liked to point out himself, the LA Times reported. He didn't retire until 1989, at age 46.

A procedure that outlived the man

More than 2,600 major league players and thousands of amateurs have since had UCL reconstruction, the surgery that carries John's name, according to the Associated Press. The list includes two-way star Shohei Ohtani, three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander and Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper.

"If you put it in dollars and cents, I think there's no question that Tommy John is the most valuable reconstructive procedure there is," Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache told the Associated Press in 2024.

Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten called John's willingness to undergo the experimental surgery a defining act of courage. "His courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can't be overstated," Kasten said in a statement. "His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come."

The Yankees, where John had two stints and posted consecutive 20-win seasons, said in a statement that his surgery often overshadowed how good a pitcher he actually was. "We pause to remember the totality of his legacy: his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer," the team said, according to NBC News.

A farewell before the end

John skipped the Yankees' 78th Old-Timers' Day celebration earlier this month because of what the team described only as unspecified health issues, according to CBS News. Instead, the team shared a written farewell from John on Aug. 8.

"Thanks to Dr. Jobe, who saved my arm & made it possible for me to continue pitching," John wrote. "That surgery has since gone on to save the careers of countless pitchers, including many of the very best in the game today. Thank you to all the fans who supported me and my teammates for 26 years. I will never forget you."

Reuters had reported the previous week that John was in hospice care, according to NBC News. The Times of India noted that John had revealed a bladder cancer diagnosis in 2024, but reported there has been no official confirmation of what caused his death. Multiple outlets, including CBS News and the Associated Press, have reported only that John died peacefully at home surrounded by family, without listing a specific cause.

John is survived by his wife, Cheryl, and three children, Tommy, Travis and Tamara, according to a Dodgers statement cited by NBC News. His family plans a private celebration of life in Florida and has asked well-wishers to donate to the Duke University Medical Fund rather than send flowers, according to the Times of India.

Born Thomas Edward John Jr. on May 22, 1943, in Terre Haute, Indiana, John graduated valedictorian of his high school class in 1961 but skipped the commencement speech because of a stutter, the Associated Press reported. He turned down a basketball scholarship offer from the University of Kentucky and signed with Cleveland instead.

The surgery that bears his name remains the standard of care for elbow ligament tears in pitchers more than five decades after Jobe first attempted it, with no serious rival procedure having replaced it since.