Back when I was playing Little League Baseball - probably 25+ years ago now - Tommy John made an appearance at the local fields and signed autographs one day. More so than ever right now, Tommy John has become synonymous with UCL tears in pitchers and the elbow ligament replacement surgery that he was the first to successfully return to baseball from in 1976 and then subsequently had named after him.

Tommy John never really got close to being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player (his last year on the ballot was 2009), despite finishing his career with 288 wins and four All-Star nominations, three of which came after he missed the 1975 season with UCL surgery. John actually has the third-most wins all time of any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame; Roger Clemens (354 - PED ties) and Bobby Mathews (297 - retired in 1887, played in the dead-ball era).

Unfortunately, John's HOF candidacy was probably hurt because voters viewed him as a stats compiler (also had 231 losses, 19th most all time) because he played 26 MLB seasons from 1963-89 (some might call this longevity). He also never won a Cy Young (four top-10 finishes, two-time runner-up) or had an overwhelming amount of postseason success (losing side of the World Series three times with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees). John has a 3.34 career ERA and is eighth in all-time games started by a pitcher with 700, which is second most amongst left-handers (Steve Carlton, 709).

I don't have particularly strong feelings about it one way or the other, but it just feels like with how (perhaps alarmingly) common TJ surgery has become and the countless careers that it's saved, that Tommy John deserves to be in the HOF for his contributions to baseball as a trailblazer. Perhaps, one day, the Veterans Committee will vote him in.... curious if anybody else has any thoughts or opinions?