We Can Rebuild Him…
File under “professional envy.”
A few years back, I developed a pitch for a 30-for-30 for ESPN that traced the history of Tommy John surgery, a cutting-edge medical procedure invented by Dr. Frank Jobe that has saved the careers of hundreds of baseball pitchers. The concept of the feature doc was to re-unite the good doctor and Tommy on the 40th Anniversary of the procedure, and take a deep dive into how this medical innovation not only changed the game, but also speaks to the importance of how what we do inevitably defines who we are.
The metaphor to open with seemed so clear — “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Both this new, radical surgery and Lee Majors hit the national consciousness in 1974 (plus, we could use the iconic opening as rights were in house at ABC). Dr. Jobe was using innovation and science to make to prolong livelihood.
Needless to say, another filmmaker beat me to the punch (someone on Dr.Jobe’s publicity team didn’t know this other project was greenlit).
Won’t be the first or last time, but there’s solace in knowing the project was, in the zeitgeist.
Here’s the original pitch deck:
“WE CAN REBUILD HIM…”
THE STORY OF TOMMY JOHN & DR. FRANK JOBE 40 YEARS LATER
An ESPN 30-for-30 Proposal
OPENING VO
In 1974, a new TV show premiered.
OPENING SEQUENCE: SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: “Steve Austin…”
VO As the supernatural possibilities of Steve Austin’s bionic body were taking shape in the public’s imagination, the real-life intersection of technology — and the true limits of human performance — was about to be put to the test, with people’s health and livelihoods on the line, a bottom of the 9th, two-strike, two-out scenario for the ages.
FOOTAGE:
TOMMY JOHN, 31-year-old lefty for the Dodgers, pitches to batters, strains his elbow.
THE STORY
In 1974, Tommy John, went 13-3 with a 2.59 ERA. He also became the first professional athlete to successfully undergo the operation after injuring himself in July of that year. At the time, a torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) meant the end of a pitcher’s career. Many thought John would suffer the same unjust fate. However, he miraculously returned in 1976 and continued playing until 1989, winning 288 games in his career (40 more than he won before the surgery).
John’s surgery was groundbreaking (ligaments normally connect bones while tendon attaches muscles to a bone; here, the damaged ligament is replaced by a tendon from an entirely different part of the body).
It was performed by Dr. Jobe, a former team physician with the Dodgers. Dr. Jobe’s method was passed along to a new generation — top-line sports surgeons like Dr. James Andrews, Dr David Altchek, and Dr Lewis Yocum.
These two stood at the brink of something monumental, two men who never have received the recognition that they deserve, two men who arguably should be enshrined in the halls of Cooperstown.
We will catch up with Tommy and Dr. Jobe, on the 40th anniversary of the first successful UCL surgery for a MLB pitcher. They will reminisce about the procedure that revolutionized the game, and how it changed each other’s lives. Their personal journeys will reflect on a different time, before the surgery was so ubiquitous and how. They will be reunited and speak on camera with each other for the first time in years.
This is the story of a cutting-edge doctor and a worried patient, of striving to be the best in your job, of extending employment opportunities for people, a story of courage, dedication and baseball.
BACKGROUND
After he retired, Tommy took up coaching a minors tam in Bridgeport, CT. We’ll learn what lessons he passed on to a new generation of ballplayers, what his surgery taught him about perseverance. Also, we’ll learn about his son’s 17-day coma after falling out of a 3 story window, and how his full recovery echoed his own medical miracle.
As with Tommy, Dr. Jobe’s own life remains an enigmatic story needing to be told. He’s now in his 80s, retired from the Kerlan Jobe clinic, an incredibly modest man who, as a Sergeant in the 101st Airborne in WWII, was captured behind enemy lines by the Germans. His nearly 40 year career started as he delivered babies as a family doctor. Prior to the Tommy John surgery, the concept of using tendons as ligaments was only seen in the reinforced joints of polio patients. Today, Tommy John patients go through what’s called “the Jobe Exercises.”
We will also look to the future of sports medicine in the 21st century, and examine the controversial fine line between performance enhancement and medicine.
TESTIMONIALS
This project will feature sound-bytes and testimonials from the over 100 current and ex-players who have had the operation (a similar procedure) performed on them including: Jamie Moyer, R.A. Dickey, Mariana Rivera, John Smoltz, Stephen Strasburg, Ben Sheets, Joba Chamberlain, etc.
We will meet doctors Dr. James Andrews, Dr David Altchek, and Dr Lewis Yocum, all of whom have followed in the footsteps of Dr. Jobe.
The piece will also feature motion graphic generated footage and b-roll of the surgery itself, as well as expert quotes from Will Carol, author, “Under the Knife”.
THE OVERALL
On the 40th Anniversary of Tommy John’s historic and innovative procedure, it’s time to look back at this historic moment. Lives were changed forever, careers were extended, and we will finally give credit to an innovation that has extended the careers of so many athletes.
It all started with two men.
It all started by rebuilding the first six million-pitch man.