QUOTES BY TOMMY JOHN
"Always give 100 percent and you'll never have to second guess yourself."

"I'm a light eater. When it gets light, I start eating."

"When they operated, I told them to put in a Koufax fastball. They did - but it was Mrs. Koufax's."

"I have four basic pitches: fastball, curve, slider and change-up…plus eight illegal ones."

"If you can find ways to get guys at-bats, to where they feel like they’re making a contribution to the team, then everything’s fine."

"My best moment as a pro [was when] I beat the Phillies and Steve Carlton in a driving rain storm, probably the best game I ever pitched being on center stage."

"I think dreaming is part of it. That’s why they’re here. They have dreams of being big league players."

"I think you learn how to pitch during the game from about the 60th pitch to the 110th pitch. When you start getting tired, you learn how to pitch."

"I'd just hope that people will look and see that I'm the 'fifth-winningest' left-hander of all-time."

"I'd never have been able to win 288 games without the surgery. We're going to be linked forever."
-- remarking about Tommy John Surgery

"The mental part was the hardest. The competitiveness in any athlete makes them want to be out there helping the team. After I'd do my workouts, and my therapy and everything, I'd go into the stands and watch the game. But at the All-Star break in 1975, I'd regained my fastball, and that was some light at the end of the tunnel. That was the biggest thing."
-- commenting on his baseball career post-surgery

"You know what I'm most proud of? What I'm most proud of , and I don't know if anybody from the surgery can say this, but I pitched 13 years after the procedure and I never missed a start. I had not one iota of trouble. I'd like people to remember that about me, too."


QUOTES BY OTHERS ABOUT TOMMY JOHN
"I know they had to graft a new arm on John, but did they have to give him Sandy Koufax?"
--Pete Rose