Tommy John’s name has lived in baseball for decades, but on Saturday the former pitcher used it one more time to say goodbye.
The New York Yankees posted a farewell letter from John, who is 83 and has been dealing with “health issues,” according to the team. In the message, John thanked the organization, the Steinbrenner family and the people who followed him through a 26-year major league career.
“I want to thank the Yankees organization and the Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone,” John wrote, “along with all the friends and fans who followed me throughout my 26-year career.”
The letter came on the 78th Old-Timers’ Day, when the Yankees said John was sharing a message from his home in Bradenton, Florida.
John’s legacy in the game is inseparable from the elbow surgery that now carries his name. In 1974, he became the first pitcher to undergo the procedure on his elbow, a surgery performed by Dr.
Frank Jobe that ended up changing baseball forever. John mentioned Jobe in the letter; Jobe died in 2014.
That surgery extended John’s career for several more years, and he ultimately pitched for six teams: the Yankees, White Sox, Dodgers, Angels, Cleveland and Oakland. His longest stays came in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, with eight seasons in pinstripes, seven with the White Sox, six with the Dodgers, four with the Angels and three combined with Cleveland and Oakland. Over that span, he started 700 games and played across generations.
After retiring at 46, John moved into broadcasting and coaching at the collegiate and minor-league levels.
His health has been a concern for some time. John had previously been diagnosed with bladder cancer, and he has also dealt with coronavirus and blood clots in his lungs. The specifics of his current condition were not immediately clear.
Bucky Dent, who played with John on the Yankees, said he learned of his longtime friend’s poor health last week and went to visit him.
“I got to spend a couple hours with him,” Dent said. “Just talked baseball.
He was doing alright. It’s difficult.
I just wanted to spend time with him.”
Dent was at Yankee Stadium for Old-Timers’ Day, and said John’s condition came up among those in attendance.
“He pitched a long time, and had a surgery named after him,” Dent said. “He’s a guy that went out there and did the job. … My heart goes out to him.”
In his letter, John closed with a memory from the start of his career and the advice his father gave him before he left for his first pitching job.
“The day I left for my first job as a pitcher,” John wrote, “my father looked at me and said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.
“I’ve never forgotten those words. Thank you and God bless.”
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