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Remembering Tommy John At OneLegUpAlex Media 8-17-26 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Well, as the Yankees were about to undergo Game three
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and salvage a three game series against the Blue Jays.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The Yankees community did find out that a week after
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: his hospice letter saying goodbye to the Yankees family, Tommy
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: John passed away at the age of eighty three. I'm
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: not going to play our entire interview again. I'm gonna
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: play clips and cite the actual interview link in the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: description below, but here's what he said. And I'm so
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: grateful that I got to interview Tommy on my podcast,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: meet him a couple of times at Hall of Fame,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: signing Spintroy Pride, and of course the story of my dad,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and I'm meeting him in Tampa for the first time.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: In two thousand and four. I leaned over the railing
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: at George Simonerfield, then Legends Field, and he signed my
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: book of Wit And to be able to thank him
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: on my podcast meant a lot. And as I mentioned
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, losing him, I was reminded of all the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: times these ballplayers would go out of their way for
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: us and sign our book, and I felt the loss
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of him and my dad at the same time yesterday.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: But as far as pitching mechanics, adapting are always adapting
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to life after the Tommy John surgery. Here is what
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the namesake Tommy John. Thanks to Mac macfarlan burd Ranging
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: this told me at one like a blex media, take
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: us inside because of this fifty of the year exactly
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: what happened, and how that surgery changed your motion, your
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: pitching form and whatnot, and how you felt because I
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: heard you went on to throw two hundred and fifty innings.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: The next year. Is that correct? At two hundred and
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: some innings? I forget how many? Two ten? I just
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: wanted to play baseball.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I wanted to pitch, and this little bump in the
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: road called the ruptured UCL throw me back to still
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: a little bit, but you know, it is what it is,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: and we go on about it and do what we
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: have to do.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the guy that performed
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the surgery for you, doctor Frank Job. How'd you stay
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in touch with him long after the surgery? Like, were
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: you guys still close after you? Absolutely that friendship with
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Frank Job? Teys a little bit about it.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Who performed the surgery on you?
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: He was an excellent surgeon, but he was a good guy,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: and when we talked about my surgery that he was
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: going to do on me, it was more like father
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: and son and not doctor patient. He talked to me
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: with compassion and with love and with caring.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: That's very special, Emo, and so that connection over the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: years you had with him had to mean a lot.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: It did. Absolutely did. Do you wish you were in
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the hall? Well, yes, I do.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I think I told this before when we were down
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: spring training and you were sitting there outside the dugout,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: my dad and I reach over and you were kind
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of signed a book of wit and I always remember
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that moment. You know, you have two hundred eighty eight
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you have two hundred eighty eight wins. Talk about the
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: mechanics though, because obviously you know the mechanics after Tommy
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: John before.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: What were the differences? The same? Absolutely the same.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Do you like being associated with the surgery with the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: name or does it drive you crazy?
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: It's something that they did to me and that bore
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: my name, and you know, and I'll just I'll do
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: what I have to do as long as I have
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: to do it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: That interview is from twenty twenty four, twenty twenty four,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: before the Dodgers and the Yankees faced off in the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: World Series. So it was a great in depth conversation
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: with Tommy. Again thanks to Mac McFarlane, thanks to his
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: wife Cheryl, who I got to know over the years
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as well the last few years, for being so kind
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and welcoming, you know with Tommy, and yes, I mean
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: sharing that story with my dad and then getting to
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: hear Tommy John's you know story, He was very special.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I want to end it there
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: for this episode because he said, as long as I
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: have to do, he had fifty one years basically to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: share that success story of how he overcame that ruptured
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: ucl got the surgery, was the first one to ever
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: get it and go on to win two hundred eight
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: eight game. I mean, what a story that is, two
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: hundred eight game winner and most of them after the surgery.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: It's it is quite remarkable. And I also talked to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: him about what it's like that other guys are getting
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: in and we all know nowadays that Tommy John surgery
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: is so routine, it's not as rare. It's basically, as
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: someone said the other day, or write a passage to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: pitching and do I like that not necessarily. I don't
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: think everybody should go on to the knife for Tommy
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: John if they.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Don't need it. But here we are.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: It's twenty twenty six, and what was phenomenon fifty two
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: years ago is something that's commonplace. And we'll hear more
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: about that with Tommy in the description below. But today
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you for all the kindness,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and he exemplified all the kindness that these ball players
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: have showed us over the last twenty plus years. And
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a funny guy. We saw him at Pinstripe Pride a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: couple of years in a row, and I did see
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: him this past year as well. He looked a little
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: older and a little frailer, but he was still there
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and he got to see all his teammates again, and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: he had that podcast rubbing elbows. I mean, he was
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: constantly out there. And one last thing he did mention
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: he wanted to go to Hall of Fame with me,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and the Baseball Hall actually posted a message about Tommy John.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: So maybe that's a good foreshadow and maybe that push
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to get him to the Hall of Fame. Well now
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: come to fruition unfortunately after his passing. But maybe he
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: will rightfully be in the hall once in for all,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: and that's my message at one leg A alex Media