On the 50th anniversary of the surgery that changed baseball forever, Tommy John has a belief as to why he is not in the baseball Hall of Fame.
John, the namesake of the famed elbow surgery, retired with 288 wins and a 3.34 ERA, but he never garnered more than 31.7% of the vote from writers. Thus, he is not in Cooperstown.
The 81-year-old is one of the most famous pitchers of all time, so he was asked why he believed he was not in the Hall of Fame.
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Tommy John of the New York Yankees pitches at Yankee Stadium circa 1980. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
He says it has to do with his political views, and primarily, his voting decisions.
“Maybe because I voted for Donald Trump,” John told ESPN New York radio.
John was on the writers’ ballot from 1995 to 2009, and Trump didn’t run until 2016. John also was not voted in by the Veteran’s Committee in both 2011 and 2014, but the committee also skipped over him in 2018 and 2020.
Tommy John of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia circa 1975. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
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John also complained about today’s era of baseball, calling out pitchers who claim to be “workhorses” but last five or six innings. He said a win should be credited after seven innings, not the five innings that has been the staple since well before John was even born.
The legendary pitcher isn’t the first to say politics kept him out of the Hall. Curt Schilling voiced similar sentiments after he just missed enshrinement in his penultimate year on the ballot, and he even requested to be left off the ballot in his final year. Neither the Hall of Fame nor the writers obliged, and Schilling got a lower percentage the following year. His fate is now in the hands of the Veteran’s Committee.
Tommy John of the New York Yankees is shown at Yankee Stadium circa 1987. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
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John was in the major leagues from 1963 to 1989, playing for the White Sox, Dodgers, Yankees and the then-Indians.
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