Mark Bennett: Movie crew, Tommy John in Terre Haute to film documentary on his life

Aug. 1—Tommy John's life already seems like a film script.

A kid from Terre Haute, Indiana, grows up to be a star pitcher in the major leagues, suffers what had always been a career-ending arm injury, undergoes revolutionary surgery, recovers and plays 14 more seasons, including three World Series berths.

By the time he retires, John wins 288 games for six different clubs in a span from 1963 to 1989. Only six other lefthanded pitchers have won more games. Only two major leaguers played more seasons than John's 26.

Somehow, John — now 80 years old — hasn't yet been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.

That saga is the subject of "Tommy John: The Bionic Man," a new documentary in the making by Winter State Entertainment, directed by Nicholas Hagen and his team. Hagen's crew, as well as Tommy John himself, is in Terre Haute this week to capture interviews with John and familiar hometown sites from his boyhood years.

"I am so looking forward to that," John said Tuesday afternoon. "I think that what I've done in my life, there's a lot to be said [in film], and I think Nick will do a good job at bringing that out to the front."

John arrived in Terre Haute, traveling in from his current home in Sarasota, Florida, where he and his wife, Cheryl live. He will be at the Terre Haute Rex game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night at Bob Warn Field, an event billed as "Tommy John Night."

Indeed, there's a lot of ground to cover in his lifetime, including those Terre Haute years. John signed his first professional contract in 1961 with the Cleveland Indians, just as he completed high school at Gerstmeyer. He went on to play for the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers until incurring a painful arm injury at the age of 31.

Other players who'd suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in a throwing arm, up to that point, saw their careers end.

Instead, John agreed to undergo a first-of-its-kind, untested surgery proposed by Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe and performed on Sept. 25, 1974.

Jobe's unprecedented surgery lasted four hours. In it, he replaced John's torn ulnar collateral ligament in the pitcher's left arm with a tendon taken from TJ's right arm. Jobe pitched the idea as a way to save John's career, after John tore the ligament earlier that summer of '74 while pitching against the Montreal Expos on July 17.

It worked, thanks to John's guts and his following an, again, untested rehabilitation regimen. John sat out the rest of the 1974 season and all of 1975 and returned to the Dodgers in April 1976.

Facing 1-in-10 odds, set by Jobe, of the procedure working, John went on to win another 164 games before retiring.

Since then, more than 2,100 ballplayers from youth leagues to the majors have undergone what's become known as "Tommy John surgery," according to Major League Baseball.

The approximately 90-minute documentary will capture that story, and hopefully reopen eyes of Hall of Fame electors.

"Tommy, no matter the obstacle or adversity he faced, is a true testament to what he calls stubbornness but what I call unbridled determination," Hagen said by phone Tuesday afternoon.

Hagen and Winter State have been working on the film since March, interviewing and filming key figures and sites in John's life story. This week's trip to Terre Haute adds a crowning touch. Hagen estimates the documentary will be released in the summer of 2024, perhaps on streaming platforms.

Advice given to John by his late father underpins the film. His dad gave him the advice when young Tommy got his first minor league assignment with the Indians' Dubuque, Iowa, farm club. He said, " 'Remember who you are and where you came from — Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana,' " John recalled.

"It's a humbling piece of advice," Hagen said. "It's kind of foundational."

That piece of the story happened in Terre Haute. Hagen is anxious to retell it in film through this week's efforts.

"To be able to come back to Tommy's hometown, to where a lot of who he is today came from, is going to be exciting to add to our story," Hagen said.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.