Night Owl Cards

  Today is the 50th anniversary of the surgical procedure that gave Tommy John his career back and, by extension, hundreds upon hundreds of major league pitchers, as well as amateur pitchers, too. So much has happened since that initial surgery that merely the mention of it can spawn all kinds of discussions, and "Tommy John Surgery" has been the "nickname" for decades for the ulnar ligament replacement procedure in the reconstruction of a pitcher's elbow. I've talked to Tommy John a couple of times for stories and each time his surgery came up. I can imagine he's talked about it hundreds, if not thousands of times. I had the opportunity to talk to him again recently, but, frankly, I couldn't think of anything new to discuss and didn't want me or him to repeat ourselves, so I passed. But I have something new when it comes to his cards ... well, it's old, but it's new to me.   I've mentioned many times that Tommy John's 1974 Topps ...

The recent news that Chad Billingsley is finished for the season because of sore elbow is not going to help the Dodgers' playoff chances any. It's very disappointing because I've always been a fan of Billingsley, through all of his infuriating struggles and his endless habit of playing head games with himself. The fact that he was struck down in the middle of one of the greatest success streaks of his career -- possibly the "ah ha!" moment of his career -- is even more heartbreaking. But I'm not ready to write him off, even though it's possible that he may need Tommy John surgery. If you're someone from my generation, TJ surgery is the "Uh Oh" announcement of baseball medical procedures. The sign that a player may never be right again. This goes back to the fact that I remember the news of John recuperating from the surgery and all of the "experts" who said how dicey it was. Even though John recovered in spectacular fashion t...