Photo

Many pitchers can thank Tommy John and his doctors for their baseball careers. In 1974, John, then a Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander, had an elbow ligament in his pitching arm replaced with a tendon from his right forearm. The operation, ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe. Hundreds of pitchers, including stars like the Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg, have since had what is now known as Tommy John surgery.

John, who was named the National League’s comeback player of the year in 1976, retired in 1989. He had 288 victories and a 3.34 earned run average in his 26-year career with six teams.

Now 69, John will attend Baseball Assistance Team’s annual fund-raising dinner honoring Yogi Berra on Tuesday in New York. The group helps former players and baseball employees facing hard times.

Q. Are you sorry you never copyrighted the term Tommy John surgery?

A. I checked on it, and they couldn’t copyright it. If I could, the doctors were not going to pay me any money, so it would have been called the Frank Jobe surgery.

Q. How’s your arm doing? Can you toss a few innings?

A. My elbow’s fine. But I have some arthritis in my shoulder. [Don] Mattingly wanted me to throw out a first pitch at a Dodgers game last year. So I went out to the mound and started to throw and waved Donnie out to the mound and said, “I can’t pitch.” He came out and called in the left-hander from the bullpen. And it was Dr. Jobe. So 87-year-old Dr. Jobe threw out the first pitch and bounced a 15-footer to Steve Yeager.

Q. The Yankees, one of the teams you pitched for, have had several top pitching prospects that needed your surgery, including Manny Banuelos, Joba Chamberlain and Andrew Brackman. Are the Yankees doing something wrong?

A. I think it’s the nature of the beast. The Yankees had the Joba rules. Some of the coaches told me it was a pain. You have to pitch him here and not there. You have to give him two days, this and that. That didn’t work. Throwing a baseball is hard on your arm. If you throw a baseball long enough you’re going to come down with some sort of injury. What you try and do is throw it as correctly as possible. I don’t think throwing a baseball 100 times or less is going to keep you from having Tommy John surgery.

Q. What do you think about pitch counts used by most teams today?

A. I don’t know who came up with the 100-pitch count. I have no idea. But I know when I was coaching with the Expos in 2002, Cliff Lee used to get on me all the time. He’d say, “Why can’t I throw more than 100 pitches?” I said cause my bosses have said so. I said, “Cliff, if it was me, you’re out there throwing the ball until you finish the game.”

Here’s my reasoning. Jim Andrews is a great orthopedic surgeon. He studied pitching and pitch counts on Little Leaguers. And he came up with Little League pitch counts. Twelve-year-old kids can throw 85 pitches in a game and they they have to be off four days and can’t pitch until the fifth day; 22- to 42-year-old pitchers in the big leagues who have trainers, strength coaches, message therapists, acupuncturists and all the supplements — and I don’t mean performance-enhancing drugs — can only throw 15 more pitches. One of those numbers is wrong.

I’m not saying it’s Jim Andrews. I’m not saying it’s baseball. But if a 12-year-old can throw 85 pitches and a major league ball player can only throw 15 more pitches, something is wrong with the numbers. You draw your conclusions.

Q. How do you spend your time now?

A. I live in New Jersey at a place where we have seven golf courses and a bunch of ski runs. I’m waiting for good weather to go out and hit the golf balls. I also make golf clubs for friends. I’m also involved with charity work. On Jan. 31, I’m going to be a guest celebrity bartender at Foley’s, the restaurant in Manhattan named after Red Foley, the sportswriter. They’re celebrating their ninth anniversary. All the money raised that night will go to my foundation, Let’s Do It. We contribute to STOP, founded by Dr. Jobe and Dr. James Andrews to prevent overuse injuries with young pitchers. And we support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. My youngest son, Taylor, committed suicide March 9, 2010.

Q. Why is the Baseball Assistance Team so important to you?

A. It’s baseball people helping baseball people. I was never more touched in my life than when I found out at a B.A.T. dinner about how they helped Vernon Law’s son, who had cancer. His dad, Vernon, was a great player and his brothers played. But he never played the game and they still helped him.

And one of the players I had in the minor leagues when I was working for the Expos was sick and his insurance ran out. And B.A.T. helped him. It makes you feel good you can do something.

Q. You’ve been a player, a broadcaster, a minor league coach and a minor league manager. What would be your ideal baseball job be at this time in your life?

A. Broadcasting. Because what you say on the air doesn’t have to be correct. (John laughed.) But I have a lot of insight to offer for station like the MLB Network.

My career has spanned so many things. When I came up in 1963, I made $6,000 a month. Minimum salary. Meal money was $8 a day. I was there for Curt Flood, free agency, (Andy) Messersmith and (Dave) McNally, strikes. Marvin Miller. I can give you insight on the haves and the have-nots. I like Jim Kaat. I find that Jim is one of the best I ever heard.

Q. Do you think you deserve induction to the Hall of Fame?

A. My theory about the Hall of Fame is I don’t worry about things that I cannot control. If I could control the voting and I didn’t get in, I would be worried. Personally, I think I should be in. For longevity, for 288 wins, for the arm surgery. I think that sets me apart from anybody else that’s out there.

Q. Should players who used performance-enhancing drugs be allowed into the Hall?

A. Yes. They didn’t break any rule of baseball. And you hear a lot about the hitters, but taking performance-enhancing drugs probably helps a pitcher more than it helps a hitter. Because you still have to put the bat on the ball squarely. And taking steroids and all that doesn’t make you do that. It just makes you stronger.

You can be a mediocre pitcher that lost your stuff throwing 88, 90 miles an hour. Then you’re put on the drugs and all of a sudden you’re throwing 94, 95, 96 miles an hour.

If you asked me if anyone used steroids in a lineup that I faced? I don’t care, the whole lineup could have used them. If I had good stuff, they were going to hit the ball harder, but it was going to get to the shortstop quicker and the out would be made at first base easier.

Q. Did players use amphetamines when you played?

A. I lost out on a Cy Young Award and there were guys who won the award who the sportswriters knew were on amphetamines. So what’s the difference? I think the players that have used performance enhancers will eventually get into the Hall. People have to get over it. I think we’re a forgiving society

Q. You played for George Steinbrenner. Should he be inducted?

A. They just put Jacob Ruppert in right? George should be in someday. All these players making millions of dollars. I said for years that they should send Christmas cards to two people, Marvin Miller and George Steinbrenner. Marvin started it with free agency. And George kept it going with outlandish salaries.

Q. What was the highlight of your career?

A. Two things. Pitching in the 1977 playoffs for the Dodgers, I beat Steve Carlton in a pouring rainstorm in Philadelphia to win the N.L. pennant. I pitched nine innings and I beat Carlton, 4-1. Dusty Baker hit a three-run homer off Steve. That was the best game I ever pitched in baseball considering the enormity of the game. And it rained from when I warmed up in the bullpen until I walked off the mound at the end. That was my first trip into a World Series. I was on a World Series team in 1974, but I had elbow surgery and I couldn’t play.

The second highlight was after my surgery, I pitched 13 years in the big leagues and never missed a start. Whatever we did to rehab my elbow, we may have done it better than they do it today with all their knowledge.

Q. Any regrets?

A. I have no regrets, other than I was born too soon. I told my dad near the end of his life that I’m really mad about you and Mom. And he said, What? And I said, “Why couldn’t you and Mom have had me about 10 or 12 years later in life so I could have reaped the money that’s out there now?” (John laughed.) And Sandy Koufax was born much too soon.

Q. Favorite player to watch today?

A. Derek Jeter. Plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. Plays it hard. Keeps his mouth shut. He’s a throwback to the Mattinglys, Randolphs, Chamblisses, Munsons.

Q. Your daughter, Tamara, is married to the Chicago Bears’ Patrick Mannelly. Are you an N.F.L. fan?

A. I was a Chicago Bears fan when I was a little boy growing up in Terre Haute, Ind. And my mom and dad were Bears fans, too. When my daughter phoned us and told us that Patrick was drafted by the Bears, I was absolutely ecstatic.

As opposed to baseball, in the N.F.L. the salary cap makes every team average. That’s parity. Then you have the teams that have the good systems like (Bill) Belichick with good personnel people, and they get the right players and they’re 12-4 or 13-3. The teams with bad personnel people are 8-8, or 7-9.

Q. What’s in your iPod?

A. I have my son who died. He sounds like Josh Groban. I have Josh Groban, Andrea Bochelli, George Strait, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, the Gatlin Brothers. Coming from Indiana, I’m a country fan.