Tommy John Back for Final Fling : Yankee Sinkerball Pitcher May Retire After This Season

Tommy John has sauntered through a career that best resembles a watch commercial--the one where the product takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Time, though, is running out on the 43-year-old Yankee left-hander. Following this, his 23rd season in the major leagues, the curtain will drop on the Tommy John Sinkerball Show. So he says.

John long has stymied hitters with the sinkerball, a pitch that seems easy to hit, but rarely is clubbed consistently. The sinker has led to a 261-207 career record, three 20-win seasons, two All-Star games and and two World Series appearances.

His tenure has been broken into three parts--first, a success, then a comeback from arm surgery that caused him to miss the entire 1975 campaign, and finally a return to the majors after a brief respite in the minor leagues in 1985 following a 4-10 abbreviated season with the California Angels and Oakland A’s.

Still, 23 years and two returns to the major leagues have not shaken the veteran southpaw, who turned 43 May 22.

“He’s not different. It’s the same Tommy,” says Yankee catcher Butch Wynegar, who made his debut with the Yankees in 1982, catching John. “He still wears out the outside corner. With Tommy, you set up on the outside corner. That’s where he’ll live.”

John adds a stipulation to Wynegar’s claims. “It’s the same Tommy John,” John says. “Although this time, I know this is my last year playing.”

John has enjoyed his most success in Yankee pinstripes. Two of his 20-win seasons came during his first stay at Yankee Stadium--21-9 in 1979 and 22-9 the next season. In his three full seasons with New York, his winning percentage is .667 (52-26). John won his first two decisions with the Yankees this season, giving him a career winning percentage of .558 (261-207).

“He’s mastered taking speeds off the ball,” Wynegar says. “He’s got such a good, hard sinker, no matter how hard you swing at it, you’re always on top of it.”

John is best known for returning from arm surgery in the mid-1970s. He ruptured a ligament in his left elbow in July, 1974 against the Montreal Expos while a member of the Dodgers. He sat out the rest of the 1974 campaign and the entire 1975 season. In the interim, he underwent complicated surgery, one where Dr. Frank Jobe replaced the ruptured ligament with one from John’s right arm.

Although his most recent return to the big leagues has drawn much less attention, John says the two are similar.

“Nobody thought I could come back after the operation I had in ’74. Nobody thought I could come back this year,” John says. “I knew I may not make the ballclub. But I knew if I threw the ball this spring like I threw last spring for the Angels, I’d make some people open their eyes.”

John was impressive enough in the spring that the Yankees sent him down to Columbus of the International League (AAA). He was called up May 2, as the Yankees placed both Ed Whitson and John Montefusco on the disabled list.

With just the remainder of the season ahead of him, John will fall short of the 300-victory total. Capturing the Comeback Player of the Year Award for the second time (John won it in 1976 with the Dodgers) is a possibility, but not one John is shooting for.

“I’m just taking it one day at a time,” John says.