Tommy John and Me

As Lao-tzu said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." For me, my baseball card-collecting odyssey began with this well-worn Tommy John card.

It was 1976, and the neighbors across the street were holding your standard garage sale. Figuring there must be at least a few cool toys for sale, I (a kindergarten-age kid) dragged my dad with me to look over the wares on display. And indeed, there were plenty of action figures, toy guns, and Matchbox cars available for purchase. But I quickly lost any interest I had in those items as soon as I fixated on the baseball card collection that our neighbors' teenage son was selling.

I started thumbing through the cards, which consisted primarily of 1975 Topps, looking for Dodgers (probably glancing past rookie cards of future Hall of Famers like George Brett, Robin Yount, and Gary Carter in the process). I quickly came across the Tommy John card and knew I had to have it. Not the sexiest card admittedly, but Thomas Edward John—seemingly in a very good mood on the day his photo was snapped—was sporting the right team color, and that's all that mattered to me.

Two cents. That's what my initial foray into the baseball card universe cost me. And now that I'd had my first taste, my appetite was stoked for more, as I scraped my pennies together in the days that followed to buy as much cardboard as I could. And, thus, another collector was born.

Tommy John was certainly a worthy subject for my first card buy. Though he's most famous for the surgical procedure that bears his name, Tommy was an excellent pitcher—the very definition of the crafty lefty. My favorite  Tommy John memory remains his complete-game gem in Game 4 of the 1977 NLCS to clinch the Dodgers' berth in the World Series. Because he fell just shy of the 300-win mark (finishing his sterling career with 288 victories), Tommy John may never be enshrined in Cooperstown (though hopefully the Veteran's Committee will eventually give him the nod he fully deserves). But without question, he was one of the greatest hurlers of his era and, most important to me, a stellar Dodger.