00:00Sad story over the weekend, too, Tommy John passed away there, Craig, 83 years old.
00:05A lot of folks don't realize just how good a pitcher he really was.
00:09They're just like, isn't that the surgery?
00:12Yeah, it was named after Tommy John, exactly that.
00:18I don't think he quite got the 300 wins.
00:20Was he 288?
00:22Career, how many did he have?
00:24Was it 288?
00:26Yeah.
00:27Yeah, I crossed paths with a lot of these guys.
00:30Yeah, I met Tommy John.
00:33You know, I can't say that I knew him or that he would know me.
00:36I can't say that.
00:37Fortunately, just being in baseball, I've pretty much met them all.
00:40Like, I would say I've interacted with them all.
00:44He's one of them that I interacted with.
00:46So, you know, naturally, a few days ago when the Yankees had their old-timers day
00:50and you saw that announcement that he was in hospice at that point,
00:53you thought maybe there was a chance he was going to pass away,
00:56which indeed, of course, he did.
00:58You know, the thing is, is that it's crazy to think this and to say it,
01:05but it's absolutely true.
01:06Like, when you say that, or when anybody says that no pitcher will ever win
01:09300 games again, no pitcher will ever win as much as Tommy John ever won,
01:13ever again, moving forward in the history of baseball.
01:15There will be no pitcher to win 288 games like he did.
01:19And so, you know, the Hall of Fame right now,
01:23it's going through this transition of not rewarding longevity
01:27and rewarding players who did it at a very high level,
01:31maybe for a shorter period of time,
01:33where they used to call it compilers,
01:36guys who compiled stats,
01:37worked their way into the Hall of Fame maybe 10, 15 years ago.
01:40Now it's like your peak had to be incredible to get into the Hall of Fame.
01:45So I think that's what hurt him.
01:47Maybe eventually, from a pitching standpoint,
01:49he gets in because of the surgery being named for him
01:52and because of the stats.
01:54But he was never a high strikeout guy, Joe.
01:56He was never going to get 3,000 strikeouts.
01:58He was just a guy that, in his era,
02:00went seven, eight innings every time.
02:02You look at complete games, 10 complete games, 15 complete games,
02:05seven complete games.
02:05I mean, this is just who he was.
02:07The game has just changed so significantly.
02:10Guys like that just can't pitch.
02:12They can pitch, but they will not pitch anymore in Major League Baseball
02:15because baseball has decided that putting the ball in play
02:19is the worst thing you can do as a pitcher.
02:22Allowing a ball to be in play is horrible.
02:25We would rather take you walking somebody
02:28than letting you hit the ball
02:30with the opportunity to maybe get a strikeout.
02:32Strikeouts are king.
02:34High whiff rates are king.
02:35And that's why we've seen batting averages down across the league.
02:39Like we talked about last week, you're batting 240.
02:41That's awesome.
02:43240, that was 280.
02:45Now 240 is like, wow, Mike Trout's hitting 240.
02:47Oh, he's having a terrible year.
02:48Well, that's actually a pretty good year in baseball.
02:50So, yeah, rest in peace, Tommy John.
02:53And, you know, certainly in the 80s, Joe, growing up in the 80s,
02:57had a chance to see him pitch many years with the Yankees.
03:00And then before that, you know,
03:01before I saw him pitch with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
03:05Dr. Frank Joe, I'll never forget that name.
03:08You know, he had, when he had the surgery,
03:10he was the first, that's why it's called Tommy John surgery.
03:13But he won 164 games after that surgery.
03:18I mean, he played 26 years.
03:20So, I mean, think about it.
03:21He had that surgery in 1974.
03:23I think he was on the Dodger.
03:25It wasn't a Yankee then.
03:26I think he was a Dodger.
03:27No, Dodgers.
03:28Right?
03:28Absolutely.
03:29He was a Dodger first.
03:31And one of my favorite Tommy John stories,
03:34when he did an interview back when it was Matt Harvey and the Mets,
03:40and I believe it was Scott Boris was his agent.
03:45Remember Scott Boris told the Mets,
03:46yeah, he's not pitching more than a hundred and something innings or anything like that.
03:52And the Mets actually had a pretty good team that year.
03:55And I remember he went absolutely ballistic in an interview saying,
04:00who the hell is Scott Boris, Matt Harvey?
04:03You work for me, Scott.
04:05I don't work for you.
04:06I was, I was like, yeah, let's see how long that goes.
04:10It was just such a different era.
04:12But the idea that you were going to dictate what a pitcher was going to do
04:17to his generation was just not, you know, era not.
04:21He's like, I won 164 games after the surgery and never,
04:25my arm never hurt once after that.
04:27But he also didn't throw a hundred miles an hour, did he?
04:31No.
04:31Look, you know, Burt Blylevin struck out a lot more guys than Tommy John did.
04:35But other than that, I mean, their careers are very similar in terms of,
04:39and Blylevin's a Hall of Famer.
04:40Not that, you know, anybody streaming this knows who either of those two guys are.
04:44But Burt Blylevin was a really good pitcher, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
04:47But what really was the difference between those two guys?
04:49Not a lot.
04:50And one is in the Hall of Fame and one not.
04:52I mean, we can play this game with everybody, of course.
04:55You know.
04:56Of course.
04:56But I do think that eventually through one of those committees that they have,
05:02I forget what they call it.
05:03It's not even Veterans Committee anymore.
05:05It's like the Classic Committee.
05:07It's the different era committees.
05:09So I would say that Tommy John probably was at his peak in the 70s committee,
05:15I would guess.
05:16And so when they have that again,
05:18I would think that there's a chance that he gets into the Hall of Fame.
05:21But as of right now, still on the outside looking in.
05:23They say gk ss,
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