Dr. Frank Jobe died today

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SAN DIEGO PADRES VS LOS ANGELES DODGERS

“A 2013 study found that 124 active pitchers, about one-third of those in the majors, had undergone Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers.” The man who invented that surgical procedure died today at the age of 88. Here’s the NYT obituary.

Here’s a wonderful story on the occasion of his Baseball Hall of Fame commendation ceremony in July of 2013, and here’s a photo essay of the doctor by Jon Soo Hoo.

35 thoughts on “Dr. Frank Jobe died today”

  1. Here’s an AP story about the games in Australia. Jeepers, John, I can see why you’re only going to one game. “. . . they start at 499 Australian dollars ($450) for platinum seats and scale
    down to A$69 ($62) for seats in the outfield grandstand.”

    • Thanks, John! That was very interesting.

      I’ve forgotten. Are you going to one game or both of them? We’re expecting big things from you as our only reporter on the scene. 😉

  7. ST and all that, but what odds would you give that Dee Gordon and Yasiel Puig would have the same BA at this point? You’d like to believe DG got hot and reached the YP level.

    Wrong. It’s the other way around…a whopping .172.

    Other regulars not lighting it up: CC, .136 ,Hanley .222, AJ .083

    Ones who are lighting it up: A Gon .333, Dre .357, Uribear .296

    Dunno if Guerrero should be considered a regular yet. But he’s at .269.

    Usual cautions about BA by itself, spring, yada yada.

    You hear pitchers who get lit up in ST say sometimes they were working on certain things or certain pitches or whatever.

    But shouldn’t hitters be, um, working on hitting, especially v lesser ST pitching….maybe at least their weights?

  8. Catcher Miguel Olivo not hurting his chances of sticking around, at least in ABQ.

    Three-run double yesterday, then stole third base and scored on Miguel Rojas’ bloop single.

    A catcher stealing a base? Wonder if it was legit, or the defense asleep?

    Shades of Russell Martin, who now has 89 career SB. He used to steal about as many bases as he hit HRs every year. But last few years he’s stealing about half as many. Lot of that could be playing in Yankee Stadium and not being asked to.

    • Didn’t see the play, but would guess that the defense fell asleep. Stealing third (or heaven forbid getting thrown out while trying to steal third) probably not the deal maker when trying to hang on as a back up catcher).

  9. Guerrero hasn’t played in a year until this spring, so he needs regular work, preferably someplace where it doesn’t have the impact it would in MLB. Gordon seems to be the least bad of a poor lot of choices to keep 2nd warm until Guerrero gets used to playing the position and gets his batting eye back. Figgins is hitting .130. In retrospect they should have kept Mark Ellis.

  10. WAY past time for one personnel decision, one I’d have made long before his disastrous ST–

    Brandon League has to go. Trade him for anyone with any sort of potential, and get out the condiments that go with eating major amounts of salary. Consider a few bats and buckets of balls part of a good offer for him Work it, hard.

    Any trade will be one-sided, favor of the acquiring team. Things appear beyond repair with the Dodgers; it would be better for everyone for him to go elsewhere, however it’s managed.

    Failing a trade, get out more condiments and eat the whole contract–but cut him loose.

    Whether the team will cut him–clearly they should–is a key test of how much money does NOT matter in building this Dodger dynasty. Most teams wouldn’t. Odds are the Dodgers won’t.

    If he’s in the pen just for contract reasons–the ONLY justification possible–he’s taking the spot of a more deserving reliever. Any appearances he makes will be ticking time bombs. He’ll get shellacked, then have the practical effect of causing the pen to be a man short, because DM will avoid using him. For which DM could not be faulted.

    There shouldn’t be any wait-and-see. We’ve waited. We’ve seen. Way more than enough.

  13. The only person more players could say they owe their career to than Dr. Jobe, would be Jackie Robinson.

  14. No question Jobe was one of the giants of the modern game. He’s not in the HOF probably because the powers-that-be didn’t know exactly how to wrangle that, or maybe they were oblivious to the issue. Doubt they’d think he doesn’t deserve to be. He’ll probably get there now.

    Back to the Trout out at the plate drama…happened to think after that about the other well-known Angel named after a fish, Tim Salmon. Then thought of the Pirates’ Sid Bream. Think there’ve been players named Bass. There may be others. There definitely have been some who should have been named Crappy.

    In a name-perfect world, they’d all play for the Marlins, at the same time. But they’d probably all have quit the game before they’d do that.