of a pitcher's ulnar collateral ligament is no longer a career-ending calamity." ESPN personality Dan Patrick and longtime baseball commentator Bob Costas discussed the impact that Tommy John surgery has had on the game, stating in 2012 that there could be a case for John being awarded the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. The initial Tommy John surgery, John's subsequent return to pitching success, and his relationship with Dr. Jobe was the subject of an ESPN 30 for 30 Shorts documentary in 2013. Pitching style John was a soft throwing sinkerball pitcher whose technique resulted in batters hitting numerous ground balls which often induced double plays. In 1980, Dave Anderson of The New York Times estimated that his fastball was about 92 miles per hour. "It sinks sharply away from right-handed batters, and it sinks into left-handed batters," he wrote. Rick Cerone, who caught John with the Yankees, said of the fastball, "It looks like a real good pitch to hit until about the last 10 feet, then it sinks about two or three inches outside. When the batters try to pull it, they just hit these little grounders." At the start of his major league career, John threw just a fastball and a curveball. The Indians tried to get him to throw a slider in 1964, but John struggled with it and went back to throwing two pitches later that year. By 1980, he was throwing the slider. He also threw three different curveballs by then, classifying them by their release point: "Each one breaks differently, down or flat or in between, depending on how you spin it." In 1972, he added a screwball, which he used as a changeup to complement his repertoire. His arm lagged behind the rest of his body when he threw pitches, a technique that put extra stress on it, which contributed to his UCL injury in 1974. John tried to emulate Whitey Ford's pitching style, and he studied books on pitching by Christy Mathewson, Bob Feller, and Bob Shaw. Broadcasting Between his stints with the Angels and Athletics in 1985, John served as color commentator alongside Tim McCarver for a game between the White Sox and the Athletics on ABC's Monday Night Baseball on June 24. Following his career, John did broadcasting for several different teams. From 1994 through 1996, he served as a broadcaster for the Twins. In 1997, John served as