For baseball fans that are under the age of 35, Tommy John means a surgery that’s saved the careers of countless pitchers.
For baseball fans that go back a little further, Tommy John pitched for 26 years and won 288 Major League Baseball games with his unique left-handed delivery.
For this story, Tommy John is a new San Diego chiropractor who has a unique way of helping the human body heal itself.
Oh, and Tommy John is also a boat, so let’s start this tale there.
Dr. Tommy John III is the son of that 288-game winner and a chiropractor who was living in Chicago, looking for a place with better weather. So he came to Southern California and decided on San Diego. Any doubts about the move were erased when he was with a friend at Seaport Village.
“I’m facing Downtown, she’s facing the boats,” says Dr. John. “All of a sudden she says, ‘Oh My Gosh!’ I looked over her shoulder and there’s a boat … Tommy John. I freak out; sprint to the boat, get there and there’s a guy working on it.”
Here’s how the resulting conversation actually went:
TJ III: “Do you own this?”
Boat Guy: “No, what’s up?”
TJ III: “Well my name’s Tommy John.”
BG: “Yeah but you’re not the Dodger pitcher Tommy John.”
TJ III: “Well actually that’s my dad.”
BG: “WHAT?!?!”
The boat individual came down off the boat to shake Dr. John’s hand and share a little more information.
“Three owners ago the original builder, in 1978, was a huge Dodger fan and named it after your dad,” says John, quoting the man. “I was so moved emotionally with everything that was going on in my life, I almost threw up. If you bottled that air you could probably sell it with this story.”
It’s fitting that Tommy John III is setting up shop with a new chiropractic practice in Scripps Ranch (11633 Sorrento Valley Rd., Suite 1B). San Diego is a baseball hotbed, and his family’s name has become synonymous with baseball.
