Dodgers Honor Dr. Jobe, Inventor of Tommy John Surgery

On Tuesday September 23rd, the Dodgers shaved their magic number to three after stomping the San Diego Padres 10-1. A six run first highlighted by a three-run homer by Nomar Garciaparra, another three run blast by Blake DeWitt in the fifth, and six innings worth of one run pitching from Chad Billingsley paced the Dodgers to the victory.

But that is not the story I’m here to tell. Before the game, the Dodgers honored their long time orthopaedic doctor, who began his association with the club in 1964.

Dr. Frank Jobe teamed with the Los Angeles Dodgers first team physician, Dr. Robert Kerlan, in 1965 to open the Southwestern Orthopaedic Medical Group—which would be later be renamed the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic.

Thursday, September 25th will mark the 34th anniversary of the very first “Tommy John” surgery. Players who injured themselves before the 1974 medical breakthrough were forced into early retirement.

When Dodger starter Tommy John first injured himself, traditional treatments were tried with no improvement. John was adamant to return to pitching in the majors, even considering a trip to Florida to learn the knuckleball from long time hurler Hoyt Wilhelm, who would go on to become a member of Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1985.

John had won 124 games in his career and was leading the National League with a 13-3 record at the time of his injury. Dr. Jobe suggested an experimental procedure where the damaged pitching elbow tendon was replaced with tendon in the non-pitching right arm.

Becoming a more cerebral and better looking “monster” to Dr. Jobe’s version of  “Dr. Frankenstein”, Tommy John was reassembled and prepared to face the baseball world, with hitters wielding bats supplanting the pitchfork-carrying villagers.

After missing the entire 1975 season, Tommy John returned to the Dodgers in 1976, starting 31 games and going 10-10 with six complete games, two of them shutouts, and posting a highly respectable 3.09 ERA.

John would go on to play for 14 more seasons, winning 164 games without ever missing a start due to elbow problems.
 
The three-hour surgery has changed the face of baseball as well as sports medicine. Dr. Jobe has performed about 1,000 of the Tommy John operations on pitchers from every level, resurrecting the careers of numerous Major League hurlers.

At last count, over 75 active Major League players have had the procedure. Last year, the first National Football League player underwent a successful Tommy John procedure. Carolina Panther QB Jake Delhomme has now returned to lead his team this season.

Sixteen years after resurrecting the career of Tommy John, Dr. Jobe performed his magic again, this time on the Cy Young Award winning Dodger starter Orel Hershiser. In another breakthrough procedure never before successful, Dr. Jobe reconstructed the right shoulder of the Dodger ace.

Hershiser was injured in April of 1990 and returned to the Dodgers in May of 1991.  Although he never regained his dominating form of before the injury, Orel pitched in the Majors until 2000, racking up double-digit victory totals in 7 seasons.

Dr. Jobe has also developed a series of shoulder exercises—known as the “Jobe Exercises”—to strengthen the rotator cuff and try to eliminate the need for the type of surgery Hershiser underwent.

Dr. Frank Jobe has performed service far above and beyond the call of duty for Major League Baseball.  While the American Orthopaedic Society of Sports Medicine named him Mr. Sports Medicine in 1996 and inducted him into their Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball has been remiss for not already including Dr. Jobe into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.  

Hopefully they address that oversight in quick fashion, making Dr. Frank Jobe a member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame for all he has done to extend the careers of numerous Major League players and his contributions to the field of sports medicine.