Hall of Fame week: Brush With greatness, Tommy John

 

 

Two weeks ago yesterday, I had the great luck to do something that not many get to do.

 

I interviewed the man whose baseball card was the first one I ever pulled out of a pack.

 

Kind of unusual, right? First, how many people remember their first card way back when they were a kid? Then, how many get to talk to that person decades later for a story?

 

That's what happened to me and Tommy John.

 

I've mentioned John many times on this blog. Not only was his card the first I pulled back when my mom gave me that cello pack in 1974, but he is responsible for my Dodgers fandom. He became a key figure during my formative years of following baseball and also was my first encounter with a baseball player turning to "the dark side" as John left the Dodgers to become a Yankee before the 1980 season.

 

All of that was a long time ago, of course. I am now more than 30 years into my journalism career and John is 78 years old. But he has continued to be a figure in my life as a fan because, of all the weird things, John ended up living in the same town as I do, Watertown, NY, for a four-year period from 2011-15.

 

That's how an interview with him landed in my lap. It's amazing to me how I live in this remote area, yet I've still been able to have one-on-one interviews with the likes of John, Bobby Valentine and John Wockenfuss just in the last year-and-a-half!

 

John, if you've followed his career, you might know is an engaging guy. He enjoys, if not being the life of the party, at least being part of the party. I got that feeling in my first encounter with him.

 

This encounter was a bit more formal but no less fun. There is a recent push among Tommy John "super fans" to get him elected to the Hall of Fame when he is next up for consideration near the end of 2023. They're on social media, there's a Facebook page, a website, endorsements from country music stars, other celebrities, etc. Some of the people are connected to Watertown, which is why I was doing the story.

So, wonder of wonders, I ended up with Tommy John's cellphone number and, yes, as someone who was collecting cards of him as a kid that is WILD.

Off the top of my head, I've called five major leaguers on the phone in my career and each time will stick in my brain forever. Jim Deshaies was first. Phil and Joe Niekro were next. Richie Zisk followed. And now Tommy John. The face-to-face encounters are even more cool, of course, but you never know what you're going to get with those (sometimes they don't want to talk to you). Phone calls you have a better chance of an actual conversation. Especially if they call you back. (Like Zisk and the Niekros did, which was mind-blowing).

John moved to California with his girlfriend, now his wife, back in 2015. I called them on a Wednesday morning, caught him reading the paper (good for him!) and he was ready to go. You can tell that John likes talking about his career as much as ever and he loves talking to fans, that's how this social media Hall push got started.

I talked to him for 25 minutes and got some insight on the famous surgery in '74 that I had never heard before. Mostly the story was about the fans and their enthusiasm over John. But I wanted to ask him a few fan questions myself. So ...

The toughest hitter he ever faced: Ken Griffey Sr. (I've heard him mention Frank Thomas before, too). He has a standing joke that he could get Griffey Jr. out ... because he was only 11 at the time).

Favorite manager: Tommy Lasorda

Favorite teammates: For the White Sox, Gary Peters. For the Dodgers, Dusty Baker, Reggie Smith and Rick Rhoden (I'm willing to bet Rhoden was his golfing buddy). For the Yankees, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph and Roy White. Nobody from the Angels or A's came to mind.

 

He went out of his way to mention that those players weren't necessarily "friends," they were "co-workers." That stuck with me because we fans tend to think of players as having this fraternity with them all the time and would never consider teammates anything as pedestrian as "co-workers." But players do, I guess. John said his friends when he was playing were his neighbors.

 

Favorite teams to play for: Dodgers and Yankees.

Hall of Fame thoughts: I could tell that John wants to be in the Hall of Fame. But he's stopped talking about it pretty much, basically distancing himself from it. "I can't control Hall of Fame voting so I don't worry about it," he told me. "If I could control it and I couldn't get in, then I'd be miserable." 

 

There are plenty of fans out there, I've found out, that have all the numbers to state his case.

His interests: He likes country music a lot. When he lived here, he'd go to country music concerts. He is an Indiana native after all. He golfs a bunch. He still goes to signings when he can.

John will be 80 the next time his name comes up for the Hall. He's got some health problems (he got COVID back in December) and doesn't move like he did back when I saw him at the post office seven years ago. But he was sharp when I talked to him and on top of all my questions.

 

We have talked to John several times at the paper, so much so that I was running out of things to ask. That kind of shows you how personable he is. He likes to talk and tell stories and makes himself available.

 

He's got some old-school thoughts, which I expect at his age (part of the time it felt like I was talking to my dad). But it wasn't one of those cases of "never meet your heroes." If anything, I enjoy talking to ballplayers from my youth because it turns them into human beings, rather than super heroes.

 

People definitely have their Hall thoughts. I wish they weren't as adamant about them, no matter what "side" they are on. I've become more of a big Hall person over the years. That doesn't mean I think every Rondell White should be in the Hall. But all of those guys on the fringe, who people talk about all of the time as being deserving of a Hall spot, yeah, I think they should be in. John included.

So, without going on and on -- which I could -- that was my talk with Tommy John.

Pretty cool because not only was this the first card I pulled ...

 

... But it took me FOREVER to find this card ...

... One of the last to finish my 1975 Dodgers team set ...

... And these cards were super-annoying to me. It's practically the same pose! And just like the '74 card! Come on!

I've shown this progression before. I love it. And I hate it.

John's Yankees cards don't mean as much to me, obviously. I can barely picture them in my mind while the Dodgers cards are burned in the brain.

If you want to know how competitive he was, watch video of Game 6 of the 1981 World Series when he was pitching against his old team. John was removed from that game for a pinch-hitter in the fourth inning. The Dodgers offense struck with John out of the game and won the World Series. There is footage of John carrying on in the dugout after being removed.

Anyway, I'm glad I got a chance to talk to him for more than a few seconds (and finally got an autographed card of his -- the most recent John card in my collection). Because, heck, we're both getting on in years.

 

(OK, that'll do it for Hall of Fame week. I hope you enjoyed).