{"id":316912,"date":"2026-08-08T21:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316912\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:32:12","slug":"tommy-john-pens-goodbye-to-yankees-during-health-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316912\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy John pens goodbye to Yankees during health fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old-Timers\u2019 Day in The Bronx took on an unexpected somber tone when Tommy John released a statement<\/a> through the Yankees in which he said \u201cgoodbye to everyone\u201d as he battles health issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank the Yankees organization [and] the Steinbrenner family for giving me this opportunity to say goodbye to everyone, along with all the friends [and] fans who followed me throughout my 26-year career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former Yankee \u2014 best known for being the first to undergo the elbow surgery that now bears his name \u2014 was remembered fondly by his former teammates Saturday at the Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had almost 300 wins, on top of everything else he did,\u2019\u2019 Ron Guidry said. \u201cIt was great having him on the team. He was so knowledgeable. When we were together, we were pretty much 1-2 on the staff and having him around gave me great comfort. He could talk and it was nice to have him around because he would answer any question you had and he did so much in the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

John had been an All-Star with the White Sox and was a standout with the Dodgers by the time he injured his UCL in 1974.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, that was seen as a likely career-ending injury, but Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe performed the procedure on John, then 31, in which the lefty\u2019s elbow ligament was replaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy John of the New York Yankees pitches in a Major League Baseball game against the Oakland Athletics played on May 18, 1989 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

John missed the entire 1975 season, but returned a year later and pitched 14 seasons with the reconstructed elbow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his statement, John also credited Jobe, who \u201csaved my arm [and] made it possible for me to continue pitching. That surgery has gone on to save the careers of countless pitchers, including many of the very best in the game today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of John\u2019s 288 career victories \u2014 the highest total of anyone not in the Hall of Fame aside from scandal-scarred Roger Clemens \u2014 164 came after his surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He signed with the Yankees for the first time prior to the 1979 season and was there until he was traded to the Angels midway through the 1982 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John won more than 20 games in each of his first two years in The Bronx and returned in 1986. He remained with the Yankees through the rest of his major league career, which ended in 1989.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John started 700 games in his career, the eighth most of all time, and his 4,710 \u00b9\/\u2083 innings pitched are 19th on the all-time list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy John of the Yankees pitches during an MLB game
circa 1980. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Rick Cerone played with \u2014 and caught \u2014 John and called him \u201ca great competitor.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got better with age,\u2019\u2019 Cerone said. \u201cThat ball kept sinking and sinking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cerone also recalled John\u2019s managing days, as John managed the Staten Island Yankees in 2004, as well as two seasons in the independent Atlantic League with Bridgeport. John also spent time as a broadcaster with the Yankees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTommy was tough to compete against and a terrific teammate,\u2019\u2019 Willie Randolph said. \u201cWe were just talking about him today. It\u2019s shocking to hear he\u2019s struggling and I\u2019m praying for him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The native of Terre Haute, Ind., also pitched for Cleveland, the Angels and A\u2019s and finished second in the National League Cy Young vote in 1977 with the Dodgers, behind Philadelphia\u2019s Steve Carlton, and in 1979 with the Yankees, trailing only Baltimore\u2019s Mike Flanagan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John, in 2024, revealed he had bladder cancer, but it\u2019s unclear if that is what he is dealing with now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Old-Timers\u2019 Day in The Bronx took on an unexpected somber tone when Tommy John released a statement through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7482,20,9,11,10,321,319,46143],"class_list":["post-316912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-tommy-john-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}