{"id":322884,"date":"2026-08-17T04:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322884\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:42:26","slug":"tommy-john-dead-legendary-new-york-yankees-pitcher-was-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322884\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy John Dead: Legendary New York Yankees Pitcher Was 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary New York Yankees star Tommy John has died<\/a>. He was 83.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New York Yankees mourn the passing of Tommy John, who was a bedrock of our rotation during his time in pinstripes and a longtime favorite of Yankees fans,\u201d a Sunday, August 16, statement via the team\u2019s official X<\/a> account read. \u201cWhile his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes and trajectory of countless athletes around the world, it also overshadowed his excellence as a pitcher, which included consecutive 20\u2011win seasons with the Yankees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The obituary continued, \u201cWe pause to remember the totality of his legacy \u2014 his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer. The Yankees extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy is survived by his wife, Cheryl John, and their children Tamara, Tommy III and Travis. (Tommy and Cheryl were also parents of son Taylor, who died in 2010<\/a> at the age of 28.)<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tGetty Images (4) Sometimes, sports really have a way of tugging at our heartstrings \u2014 and 2024 had more than its share of special moments. In baseball, Freddie Freeman, the World Series MVP, returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers to a standing ovation after leaving the team to look after his son in the ICU, [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Cheryl confirmed to The New York Times<\/a> on Sunday that Tommy died after a private battle with bladder cancer.<\/p>\n

Tommy, who never publicly disclosed his cancer diagnosis prior to his death, skipped the Yankee\u2019s Old-Timers Day earlier this month amid his then-undisclosed health issue.<\/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 family who followed me throughout my 26-year career,\u201d Tommy wrote in a statement shared via the Yankee\u2019s social media pages<\/a> on August 8. \u201cThanks to Dr. [Frank] Jobe, who saved my arm and made it possible for me to continue pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Related: Celebrity Deaths of 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHollywood mourned the deaths of some of its most legendary stars in 2026. In June, legendary music executive Clive Davis also died at age 94 following a hospitalization for an upper respiratory infection. The following month, G.R.L. member Lauren Bennett died at age 37, while Bonnie Tyler died at 75. Emergency!\u2018s Randolph Mantooth and Police [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Jobe, who died in 2014, performed the first <\/a>ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction<\/a> on Tommy in 1974, replacing his torn elbow ligament with a then-revolutionary tissue graft. The procedure restored joint stability, so Tommy could continue pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat surgery has since gone on to save the careers of countless pitches, including many of the very best in the game today,\u201d he wrote at the time. \u201cThank you to all the fans who supported me and my teammates for 26 years. I will never forget you. The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me and said, \u2018Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it big in the big leagues or you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy concluded, \u201cI\u2019ve never forgotten those words. Thank you and God Bless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary New York Yankees star Tommy John has died. He was 83. \u201cThe New York Yankees mourn the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[394,191,1015,36603,9,11,10,319],"class_list":["post-322884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-celebrity-news","tag-deaths","tag-in-memoriam","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322884","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=322884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}