Youd be hard pressed to find a man whos had a greater impact on baseball over the past 40 years. Were not talking about Hank Aaron, or Bob Gibson or Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken Jr. or Barry Bonds. Were talking about Dr. Frank Jobe who passed away Thursday night at the age of 88. He is the surgeon who pioneered the ulnar collateral ligament transplant surgery that saved so many elbows and prolonged the careers of so many players, pitchers and position players alike. Dr. Jobe first performed his landmark surgery in 1974. He was actually in the stands watching at Dodger Stadium when Tommy John, for whom the operation will forever be known, blew out his elbow in a game against the Expos. John was out of action for 18 months after the surgery. But he not only returned, he flourished. Tommy John was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1976 and went on to win another 164 games with the Dodgers and Yankees before retiring at age 46. He finnished with 288 victories and a 3.34 ERA. He appeared in three All-Star Games after his surgery. He was never the best pitcher of his generation or anything close to that, but his career numbers and the fact he rebounded from this operation the way he did should in the Hall of Fame in my mind. Just how important has this operation been? Well before last season, 124 of the 360 pitchers on the opening day rosters had undergone at least one "Tommy John". Its not just the pitchers though, whove gone through this career-saving surgery. Carl Crawford, Rafael Furcal, ex-Jay Kelly Johnson and current Jays catching prospect A.J Jimenez have all undergone this elbow surgery. The first Blue Jays pitcher I could find who had the operation was David Wells back in 1985. But the list grows from there. Jimmy Key in 1988, former skipper John Farrell in 1991 while he was pitching for Cleveland and the list goes on. You have Billy Koch, A.J Burnett while he was with Florida, Jason Frasor who had it done twice, B.J. Ryan in 2007, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Josh Johnson while with Florida and Chris Carpenter with St. Louis in 2007. All owe their careers to Dr. Jobe and those surgeons who have followed his trailblazing path. The disturbing thing is the way elbow injuries have increased. There were 24 documented "Tommy John" surgeries in 2013, including those of Mets star pitching prospect Matt Harvey and Blue Jays journeyman pitcher Ramon Ortiz, who underwent the operation for a second time. But the worst year by far was 2012, when there were 46 "Tommy Johns" including four to Blue Jays Drew Hutchison, Kyle Drabek, his second, Luis Perez and the aforementioned A.J. Jimenez. There are two known pitchers who actually had three elbow ligament transplant surgeries. Jose Rijo who helped spark the Reds to victory in the 1990 World Series and Jason Isringhausen, who turned from a top starting prospect with the Mets to a standout reliever later in his career. Rijo is truly a remarkable story. After being named an All-Star with the Reds in 1995, he suffered a serious elbow injury and was out of the game for five full seasons. He finally battled back in 2001 as a reliever with Cincinnati. It was said after three "Tommy John" surgeries and two other arm operations, his elbow had almost no ligament left. But ironically, the arthritis in his elbow, the scar tissue and the fact he had built up the muscles in his forearm to such an extent, he was still able to throw against all odds. Rijo retired in 2002 but not before winning the final ball game ever played at old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. One pitcher who doesnt need to worry about his ulnar collateral ligament is Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. Thats because he was born without one. Like Rijo, Dickey has defied the odds with many a doctor saying Dickey shouldnt be able to pitch without that ligament in his elbow. Yet two years ago, he won the Cy Young Award with the Mets and is still going strong with the Blue Jays at 39. At least 85 per cent of "Tommy John" patients make a complete recovery and in most cases, their elbows are stronger than ever. However, there are some who dont make it all the way back. Blue Jays closer B.J Ryan was never the same after his surgery in 2007 and was out of the game within a couple of years. But cases like that are the exception rather than the rule and the game would be a pale shadow of itself without the medical marvels of Dr. Frank Jobe. As a footnote, we should also mention Dr. Jobe pioneered a surgical technique on another Dodgers star, Orel Hershiser. It was a less invasive shoulder procedure that reduced the risk of collateral damage to the shoulder structure and sped up the recovery time. This and That Phillies infielder Freddy Galves will one day be the answer to a trivia question. On Thursday, he became the first player to hit a home run off the Yankees Japanese phenom Masahiro Tanaka. I try not to get too caught up in the struggles of pitchers in spring training since theyre often just working on command or one specific pitch but Ive got to admit on Wednesday, I was a little bit concerned when Brandon Morrow gave up five runs on six hits over three innings to the Pirates. Then I noticed on the same day, White Sox ace Chris Sale gave up six runs on six hits and a walk in just 2-2/3 innings against the Padres. Then, the Cubs Jeff Samardzija surrendered three runs on four hits in three innings in a 7-5 loss to Colorado. At that point, I realized its too early to be making hard judgements. Marek Hrivik Jersey . Karlovic of Croatia used his big serve to beat Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 7-6 (7). Kohlschreiber had lost all of his three previous matches against Istomin but the German broke serve for a decisive 3-2 lead in the third set and held on to reach his first final of the year. Michael Stone Jersey .Y. -- Nothing seems to phase No. http://www.cheapflamesjerseyschina.com/daniel-pribyl-jersey/. The bout served as the headlining matchup of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Brown vs. Silva" event, which took place at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. It was Silva who looked well on his way to victory in the early going, delivering a pair of crushing kicks to the body that sent Brown crashing to the floor, doubled over in pain. Brett Kulak Jersey . Murray beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to clinch Britains opening-round victory against the United States on Sunday at Petco Park. "Im proud of the way Im playing just now, because I had to do a lot of work to get back to where I want to be," Murray said after celebrating with his teammates on the red clay court in a temporary stadium in left field of the downtown home of baseballs San Diego Padres. Michael Frolik Jersey . Both sides came closest to scoring in the first half, when Roma had a goal from Mattia Destro waved off for offside and Inters Rodrigo Palacio headed high. "A draw was a fair result. Neither squad had many chances," Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic said.SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- The skips voice rasped and there was fatigue in her face. Rachel Homan and her Ottawa Curling Club team were ready to put their feet up for an evening and a morning at the Ford World Womens Curling Championship after three straight wins, one of them a white-knuckler. "Oh my god, so ready. I cant wait to not curl for 24 hours," Homan said Wednesday. "I feel like its midnight, so it will be nice to get a break." The Canadians arrived at a break in the schedule tied atop the standings with Switzerlands Binia Feltscher at 8-1. The Canadians reverted to their custom of both taking the lead and finishing a game early in a 10-3 win over South Koreas Ji-sun Kim, who shook hands after eight ends. But Canada went the distance in the morning draw. They stole three points over the final two ends to rescue a 7-5 win over Germanys Imogen Oona Lehmann. That was the first time Homan threw her final stone at the world championship and just the second time Canada played a 10th end in Saint John. Theyd beaten Scotland the previous evening and were back on the Harbour Station ice in the morning. "It was a long haul, three games in a row on not much sleep and a big grind this morning against Germany," Homan said. Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Alison Kreviazuk and lead Lisa Weagle headed to dinner with family members feeling confident about their position. Canada concludes the round robin Thursday against China and Sweden. "Two great teams," Miskew said. Swedens Margaretha Sigfridsson and Russias Anna Sidorova were both 7-2 followed by Chinas Liu Sijia and South Korea tied at 6-3 and Allison Pottinger of the U.S. at 5-4. Scotlands Kerry Barr and Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic were 2-7 with Germany, Latvias Evita Regza and Denmarks Madeleine Dupont at 1-8. The top four teams in the preliminary round advance to the Page playoff. Ties for fourth will be solved by tie-breaker games. The countries with the two best records meet in one playoff game Friday with the winner advancing directly to Sundays gold-medal game. The loser drops to Saturday afternoons semifinal to meet the winner of a morning playoff between the third and fourth seeds. "We have our fate in our own hands," Homan said. "Weve got to win out and see what happens with everybody else." The Canadians, all 28 years old or younger, couldnt hide their pleasure at the prospect of sleepiing in Thursday morning.dddddddddddd They intended to stop in at the tournament party room before bed Wednesday "because theres a band there Signal Hill that we like," Miskew said. "Theyve come to Ottawa and we usually go and watch them in Ottawa." Canada scored three points in the fourth and stole three in the eighth versus South Korea. Pyeongchang, South Korea, is the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kim is among the countrys female curlers getting fast-tracked to compete. The 26-year-old skipped South Korea to fourth at the 2012 world championship in Lethbridge, Alta. She beat Canadas Heather Nedohin in a playoff game, but lost the semifinal and lost the bronze-medal rematch to Nedohin. Kim threw third stones against Homan with Un-chi Gim, her lead in Lethbridge, throwing fourth stones. With the score tied 2-2, the South Koreans played conservatively in the fourth end by putting up guards early on a counter on the button. But Miskews well-executed draw around a guard forced them to chase. South Koreas poorly-placed draws opened the door for Canada to plant more counters around the button. Homan had an easy tap for three points and a 5-2 lead in front of 1,726 at Harbour Station. "Not good," Kim said. "We were a little nervous." Canada recovered from errors against Germany to grind out a win. The Germans led 5-4 heading into the ninth, when Homan and Lehmann shifted momentum back and forth with misses. Lehmann overthrew an attempted double takeout with hammer to leave Canada shot rock for a steal of one. Miskew put guards in front of a Kreviazuk draw to the button in 10th and German third Corinna Scholz missed an attempted hit and roll behind cover. Homan struggled with draws in the earlier ends, but she had it solved by the 10th as she drew in to stack two Canadian counters on the button. Lehmann cleared just one and Homan buried a draw behind a guard to lie two again. The German skips attempt to follow her didnt curl enough. "Youve got to be confident and believe you can steal because theres no other way, theres no other option," Homan said. "It was just tough out there. We werent quite reading things right. There were a lot of uncharacteristic misses. We just tried to figure out our rocks and our lines. We just had to keep playing a little bit better each end and hope for a few lucky breaks and we made it out in the end." 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