Jobe Will Have Heart Bypass Surgery

Frank Jobe, the Dodger team physician who has performed hundreds of career-saving surgeries and is one of the pioneers in the sports medicine field, will be on the other end of the scalpel Tuesday when he undergoes quadruple bypass surgery in Los Angeles.

A body scan before spring training revealed four blockages in Jobe’s heart, one that could be life-threatening. Jobe, 76, left Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., to return to Southern California and will undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery, to be performed by Dr. Vaughn Starnes at Centinela Hospital Medical Center’s Tommy Lasorda Heart Institute.

Doctors have told Jobe, who has been with the Dodgers since 1964, he will be up and around within a few weeks, but the Dodgers don’t expect him to return to Florida for spring training. Dr. Ralph Gambardella, who shares team physician duties with Jobe, will be available in the interim.

“Dr. Jobe is an important member of the Dodger organization and is a true pioneer in his field,” said Derrick Hall, the team’s senior vice president of communications. “He has saved a lot of careers throughout his tenure, and we expect him to continue to do so after a speedy recovery.”

Jobe is most known for performing the revolutionary elbow tendon transplant operation on Dodger pitcher Tommy John in 1974.

John went 124-106 before the elbow reconstruction surgery and 164-125 in 14 seasons after it, even though Jobe felt John’s chances of pitching again were one in 100. Jobe has since performed more than 500 of the procedures, which are now known as “Tommy John” surgeries, including two on current Dodger Darren Dreifort.

“He’s in very good spirits, and he knows the top heart surgeons in the world are taking care of him,” said Lasorda, a long-time friend of Jobe. “He’s very calm about it.”

Mike DiGiovanna

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Associated Press