As baseball talk turns more a more to the annual Hall of Fame balloting in January, it seems a hall of shame why Tommy John didn’t make the Hall long ago.

As a Phillies fan, I remember how John continually baffled the Phillies with his no-speed pitches.  He drove the Phils crazy over his 6 years (1972 thru  1978) with the L.A. Dodgers, particularly when the two teams locked up during the National League Championship Series in both 1977 and 1978.

 Baseball Library writes this about Tommy John;

A sinkerballer with impeccable control, John’s major league career spanned 26 seasons and seven U.S. presidents, both ML records. In mid-career, he made history by becoming the game’s first “right-handed southpaw” when he had a tendon transplanted from his right forearm to his left elbow to remedy a tear that threatened to drive him from baseball.

In 1973 he led the NL in winning percentage with a 16-9 record. John seemed to be embarking on his best season in 1974, posting a 13-3 mark before injuring his pitching elbow in July.

Dr. Frank Jobe performed the revolutionary surgery that saved John’s career, and it was amazingly successful. The soft-throwing John joked that he told Jobe to “put in a Koufax fastball. He did, but it was Mrs. Koufax’s.” He underwent rehabilitation for a year and a half, missing the entire 1975 season, and his 10-10 record in 1976 earned him the Comeback Player of the Year Award. He then won 20 games in three of the next four seasons. John was 20-7 for the Dodgers in 1977 and 17-10 in ‘78, helping them to the World Series each year. But the Dodgers lost to the Yankees both times. John then signed with the Yankees as a free agent before the 1979 season and won 21 and 22 games in his first two seasons in New York.

• Oct 5, 1978 - Tommy John notches a 4-hit shutout to beat the Phils 4-0‚ as Davey Lopes drives in 3 runs. The Dodgers lead 2 games to none.
• Nov 2, 1977 - The Phillies Steve Carlton outpoints the Dodgers Tommy John to win his 2nd Cy Young Award. Carlton led the NL with 23 wins‚ losing 10‚ and posting a 2.64 ERA.
• Oct 8, 1977 - The Dodgers clinch the NL flag with a 4-1 win in front of an LCS-record crowd of 64‚924 at Philadelphia. Dusty Baker‚ the playoff’s MVP‚ hits a 2-run homer and scores twice as Tommy John allows 7 hits in 9 innings of work.

Tom Singer of MLB reports on Tommy John’s feelings about the Hall of Fame;

At some point, having more wins than anyone not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame loses its distinction and becomes just a festering frustration.

Tommy John, winner of 288 games, reached that point a long time ago. And he still appears a better bet to make the American Medical Association’s Hall of Fame than baseball’s.

As a pitcher, consistency was his chief asset. He won 13-plus games 11 times, with an amazing 22 seasons spanning the first (1965) and last (1987).

As a Cooperstown candidate, John has been just as consistent, which, in this case, isn’t such a good thing.

The left-hander is in his 13th year on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot. He reached his highest vote total percentage of 29.61 in 2006, but his annual support has been in that same range since his first year of eligibility, in 1995.

A candidate must get 75 percent of the vote to gain election. Results of the 2007 BBWAA Hall of Fame election will be announced on Jan. 9, and the induction ceremony will take place on July 29 in Cooperstown.

While puzzling, John’s steady-but-not-sensational Hall of Fame run appropriately reflects his reputation during his active years. He didn’t put fear into batters who, quite the contrary, couldn’t wait to grab a stick against his soft stuff. Then they would go to bed muttering about another hapless night of flailing at it.

Similarly, the sum of his accomplishments have been no more impressive to voting members of the BBWAA.

John, who had every right to expect to be quickly ushered into Cooperstown, has dealt with his disappointment.

“I have no control over it. I don’t really worry about things I can’t control. Let it fall where it may,” he has told MLB.com.

He was the epitome of the crafty left-hander, a soft-thrower who kept infielders busy dealing with the products of his sinker. For John, however, it was just another form of dominance.

He had 162 complete games. Randy Johnson, a left-hander on the opposite end of the spectrum perceived as the ultimate southpaw poison, is still looking for his 99th as he heads into his 20th season. John had 46 shutouts; Johnson is stuck on 37.

John will always be synonymous with a historic elbow operation that now bears his name. Dr. Frank Jobe performed the medical miracle, transplanting a ligament into his dead left arm, but John performed the ensuing pitching miracle.

He won more games following the surgery (164) than before it. But Hall voters who recently rewarded Dennis Eckersley for having two successful careers (as a starter, then a closer) haven’t shown John the same consideration.

John must wonder whether he would at least be closer to Cooperstown, if not already on the wall, had he won 40 fewer games but taken six fewer seasons to do it.

To the skeptic, he hung around from 1984-89 to chase personal goals, persistence now perhaps being held against him.

To John, it was a matter of still being able to pitch at a high level and still being asked to do so. He didn’t pitch out the string in Detroit or Pittsburgh or some other doormat of the times, but in the Bronx, going 29-24 for the Yankees in his last four seasons.

“I was one of the five best pitchers the Yankees could find in baseball for the last four or five years,” he recalled, with some pride and some lingering bitterness.

“I didn’t strike guys out and I gave up hits, but I didn’t let runs score and I won ballgames. That’s what you’re supposed to do,” John has said. “I think my win total, my longevity, coming back from the arm surgery, all of the wins I had post-surgery — that should be enough.”

Tommy John’s eligibility for the BBWAA ballot for the Hall of Fame expires in 2009 after 15 years.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, All Time Pitching Highlights, Post-Season Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.