Interview withTommy John about the Passing of Dr. Frank Jobe

[kldub4life]

Dr. Frank Jobe passed away earlier this week and the man responsible for the Tommy John surgery interesting enough thought another baseball legend would have benefitted if the surgery would have been around 10 years earlier - Sandy Koufax.

The CBS Morning Show interviewed Tommy John about Dr. Jobe, and the medical procedure they will both always be known for.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24471755/tommy-john-discusses-dr-jobes-death-on-cbs-morning-show

[madducks]

Yeah, everyone takes TJ surgery for granted now. But, this was experimental stuff 40 years ago. To paraphrase Star Trek, Jobe and John did boldly go where no man had gone before as the quotes below illustrate.

"This is ‘74, there's no MRIs, there's no CT scans, there's only X-Ray," said John. "And the only way they could tell if you had a torn ligament in … your elbow is … they held the humerus down and moved my forearm back and forth. And [Dr. Jobe] said ‘that's way too much movement.'”

Dr. Jobe told John he wouldn't attempt the procedure until he could get six specific other surgeons in the room with him, admitting he wasn't 100 percent sure he knew what he was doing and wanted as many hands on deck as possible.

“He said 16 weeks,” John said as to when he was allowed to start throwing again. “To this day, guys come back from Tommy John surgery, they start throwing a baseball [after] 16 weeks. Now, how Dr. Jobe knew 16 weeks, I don't know. I have no idea, but it's still 16 weeks.”

[chancellor]

His comment about humility is very telling about the man. I wasn't aware he was treating wounded on the Normandy landing - he must have been like 18 years old then.