A couple of Comiskey Park veterans caught up with each other at the old ballpark the other day. Both of them have been hanging around the place on and off for more than two decades now.
”I saw Andy the Clown the other night,” said Tommy John as he munched on a postgame salad in the Yankee clubhouse during last weekend`s series.
John brought up the name of the 68-year-old ballpark clown when asked if, at the age of 44, he still feels nostalgic upon returning to his former stomping grounds at 35th and Shields.
After mentioning Andy, John did an impromptu imitation of the clown`s traditional bellow: ”Let`s goooo, youuuu White Sooooooooox.” He caught a breath and continued.
”Yeah, I talked to Andy awhile,” he said. ”He shook my hand, and his nose lit up, and then he tried to give me the flower trick.”
Same old Andy. Same old Tommy John.
With a 9-3 record, the second highest victory total on the staff of the American League East leaders, John is refusing to show signs of age, nine years after the Dodgers told him he was too old and injury-prone to be given a three-year contract.
After spending two months on the disabled list and starting only 10 games for the Yankees last season, John retired in October to become pitching coach at the University of North Carolina. But the crafty left-hander suddenly changed his mind after only one month at Chapel Hill and re-signed with the Yanks this year.
In addition to his fine record thus far, the Yankees are 15-4 in games that John has started, and the sinkerball artist`s vast experience should come in handy during the pennant drive.
New York`s three-way race with Toronto and Detroit is not unlike the one John was in 20 years ago while pitching for the Sox. Eddie Stanky was managing the `67 team, which relied on the ”Big Three” staff of John, Joel Horlen and Gary Peters in a race between the Sox, Detroit, Minnesota and Boston, the eventual AL champs.
John recalled that 1967 was also the year that the pitching-rich Sox were accused by opponents of ”freezing” the baseballs before games to keep them low and inside the park, thus assuring the Sox of low-scoring games that they`d have a chance of winning.
”Yeah, I always thought it was better when they froze the balls here,”
said John, after pitching in sweltering heat last Saturday.
A New York writer proclaimed skepticism about the iceballs. ”Sure, they used to freeze the balls,” John said with a laugh. ”Al Lopez (Stanky`s predecessor) started it.”
But wasn`t it difficult to maintain your grip?
”It wasn`t hard at all,” he replied. ”You just had to go to the hospital every three days for frostbite.”
Lack of support by Sox hitters in `67 left John with a 10-13 mark, despite an ERA of 2.47, fourth best in the AL. Still, it was only third best on the team behind Horlen and Peters.
Looking over the last 24 years, the most amazing aspect of John`s longevity is the fact that because of a string of injuries, his career has undergone more reincarnations than Shirley MacLaine.
Even with his medical history, the Dodgers coveted John enough to trade slugger Dick Allen to the Sox for him before the 1972 season. But when he ruptured a ligament in his left elbow in 1974, only the skill of Dr. Frank Jobe saved his career. Dr. Jobe, whose most celebrated patient of late is Chicago restaurateur Jim McMahon, transplanted a tendon from John`s right arm into the left elbow, and John was forced to sit out the 1975 season, not knowing whether he`d ever pitch again.
But John returned to the mound in 1976, and from `78 through `80 with the Dodgers and Yankees his reconstructed arm accounted for a sterling record of 80-35.
John heads into his next start with 273 career victories, 82 of which came when he was with the Sox. The city where he first made a name for himself is still close to his heart.
While he acknowledged that New York is his favorite baseball town, the native of Terre Haute, Ind., didn`t hesitate on his runner-up.
”The second best place to play is Chicago,” he said. ”I love it. I love it. I could play here in a minute because it has the electricity of a big city, plus it has a Midwestern atmosphere and good Midwestern people.”
John said that he doesn`t mind the idea of a new stadium on the South Side but hoped a few of his favorite intangibles will transfer over.
”Keep the arches,” he said. ”Keep the natural grass, and hopefully, the food. Keep Andy the Clown. Nancy Faust. Roger Bossard and Don Drysdale.”
