peterk said…
I loved watching him as a Yankee in the late 80s on the old WPIX with the Scooter and Bill White. TJ Took his time. Never gave in. Great if you liked that sort of thing. And I loved that sort of thing. Another beautiful column.

3:29 PM

Walewander said…
Dear Josh,

Wonderful read again, thanks. Thought’d I’d let you know that even if ‘Wilkerized’ is never enshrined in the OED, I recently named my Diamond Mind league team the Peterborough Cardboard Gods. Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, “old Aches and Pains” Luke Appling, Schnozz Lombardi and “Tobacco Chewin’ Johnny” Lanning are just some of the stars you can catch at O-Pee-Chee Field.

3:59 PM

Anonymous said…
The closest thing to the big blackboard that we have is Google. “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” leads “Tommy John Surgery” 656,000 to 168,000. TJS’s spring training spike gives it the Google News lead, though, 712-654. I was going to try searching for variations on the possessive terms and things like “Lou Gerhig’s Disease,” but I’m a lazy bastard.

4:25 PM

Josh Wilker said…
Peterk: Yeah, gotta love those crafty lefties. That Yankee uniform kept me from fully embracing John, but I always respected him.

walewander: Go Cardboard Gods!

Anonymous: That’s some good sleuthin’.

Everyone: I forgot to add somewhere as a completely unrelated postscipt that there is a player listed on baseballreference.com named Tommy Johns. He played for one year for the Baltimore Marylands of the National Association in 1873 (http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MAR/1873.shtml), going 0 for 4. My two favorite Baltimore Marylands that year were men known only as “McDoolan” and “Jones.” Jones went 3 for 4 and McDoolan went 1 for 4 and was the losing pitcher in his only appearance. What this has to do with anything, I don’t know, but I love it.

4:49 PM

Michael said…
What anything has to do with anything, we can only guess.

While I share your Red Sox based antipathy for anything Yankee, I had a similar sort of fondness for John. I felt the same way about Frank Tanana.

I discovered, again I guess, that the 1980 Yankees had both John and Luis Tiant, Gaylord Perry, and Jim Kaat. Whoever had the Tiger Balm contract for that team was rollin’ in bucks.

Ever since I began to approach geezerhood myself,(I am exactly 8 days older than Pedro Martinez), I have had a growing sympathy and affection for the Jamie Moyers and
Bret Saberhagens of the world-the guy who can’t throw 95 anymore-or perhaps never could-but gets by with changeups, scuffballs, control, and guts.

I guess because that’s how life feels to me now.

9:53 AM

Michael said…
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-baseballcard-record

Josh and all-check this out-the Wagner card just set another record.

Mike

9:57 AM

Josh Wilker said…
Mike,

I liked watching the aging Tanana too. He had probably the most drastic early career to late career change, going from a complete flamethrower (who I believe loved his wine, women, and song) to a complete mush-thrower (who was a big God guy. I think he may have even credited the loss of his fastball to a humbling search for a higher power.).

That said, my favorite junkball performance ever was by, of all people, Pedro Martinez against the Indians in the 1999 playoffs. Because of arm trouble he could not throw a fastball but came on in relief in the deciding game of the series to throw nothing but junk for several no-hit innings.

10:59 AM

Butch Pixus III said…
…and then there is the oft-related anecdote concerning an acquaintance of ours… a certain insensitive, barbaric, culturally deprived, Bronx-born, Bronx-raised lout who presently makes his home in the rotting log of Baltimore’s finest academic circles.

When, as a schoolboy, the awful news of John Lennon’s murder on December the 8th, 1980 filtered out through the news media, abetted by playground chatter the next morning, the individual in question collapsed sobbing…

He later admitted that upon hearing that “John was Dead,” his immediate assumption was that the Yankee lefty had passed away on the heels of consecutive 20-win campaigns, and such a tragedy was more than he could bear.

He still describes his immediate feelings upon recognition of this error as “one of relief.” Not that he disliked the Beatles or anything, of course.

Such is the callous and unrefined mindset of your average Philistine/Yankee fan, set in amber
for all eternity.

12:22 PM