The Dodgers are having Tommy John and the man who performed his famous surgery, Dr. Frank Jobe, throwing out the first pitches prior to Saturday’s game, and Jobe said something very interesting in talking with the media: “If I was smart enough to do this 10 years before, it might be called the Koufax surgery.”
No longer able to deal with his elbow pain, Koufax retired after going 27-9 with a 1.73 ERA and 317 strikeouts in 323 innings in 1966. He was just 30 at the time.
Jobe said Koufax had “essentially the same thing” as Tommy John, who underwent his revolutionary procedure in 1974. At the time, Jobe thought he had very little chance of returning to the majors, but John went on to pitched 14 more seasons and win 164 games.