On January 20, 1965, Tommy John was traded from the Indians to the White Sox in a three team trade also involving the Kansas City Athletics. The trade came early enough for Topps to include Tommy as being on the White Sox, but late enough that Topps had to use a Cleveland Indians photo. Still, this would mark the first White Sox card for Tommy John.
Tommy would spend seven seasons with the White Sox before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen. Tommy would pitch until the 1989 season, at age forty-six.
Post career, Tommy had a son who died by suicide in 2010. He has since become involved with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. My uncle committed suicide in 2007 and I have participated in the AFSP Out of the Darkness walks in the Chicagoland area. Tommy has been a special guest speaker for several years, usually giving a speech before the walk begins.
It's nice to see Tommy towards the beginning of his career here. He spent parts of two seasons with Cleveland before coming to the White Sox. Tommy is now mostly identified by the surgery that bears his name, being a pioneer patient for that specialty. It's sometimes easy to forget that Tommy had twenty-six year career in the majors. Sometimes we just need to be reminded.
3 comments:
It's amazing how long his career was. Especially post-surgery.
Good stuff. John belongs in the HOF.
Tommy John 100% absolutely belongs in the Hall of Fame. It seems to me like players that hang around maybe a little too long end up tarnishing the memory of how great they were at their best.
Maybe that happened to John. In any case... he belongs.
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