Tommy John died thsi week at the age of 83. He played for 26 seasons and had 288 wins but is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a four time All Star and played for seven teams including the NY Yankees and the LA Dodgers. He is best known for the elbow surgery that is named after him which extended his career which many pitchers today get. “Tommy John Surgery.”

I met Tommy John when I played in my first of five NY Yankees Fantasy Camps in Tampa, FL in 2009. As a crazy Yankee fan I wanted to go to their Fantasy Camp, wear a real Yankee uniform, be coached by the Yankee Legends that I idealized, and be with 100 Yankee fans for a week. The problem was the highlight of the Fantasy Camp was the “Dream Game” against the Yankee Legends which was on Saturday, on Shabbos. I had my Sandy Koufax moment. He had to decide if he would pitch for the Dodgers on Yom Kippur in the first game of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins. He did not. I had to decide if I would play on Shabbos. Maybe I could walk to the stadium in Tampa and play with an eruv. I’m not violating any issur from the Torah. But I decided that I would not play on Shabbos no matter what. I would tell my teammates why I could not play and walk the three miles to the stadium to root for them.

My coaches that first year were Ron Blomberg, who was Jewish and the first Designated Hitter in Major League Baseball, who therefore called himself the “Designated Hebrew,” and Chris Chambliss, who hit a famous home run to send the Yankees to the 1977 World Series. I had brought kosher food from Teaneck for myself and one other Shomer Shabbos player from Israel. The Yankees were very accommodating to us as well as the Yankee Legends and campers. They would come over and see me eating my kosher food and remark how good the food looked or how they knew about kosher food. One player said he attended a Chabad minyan while another was a Conservative Jew who wore tefillin every weekday.

When I saw the large number of Jews at the camp, I approached Julie Kremer (not Jewish) Fantasy Camp Director about having a Shomer Shabbos Fantasy Camp. She agreed and let me organize it for the two camps the following year in November and January. It was called the Kosher Yankee Fantasy Camp. I ordered strictly kosher glatt kosher food which I supervised in our hotel and had 8 campers at each Fantasy Camp. I asked the local Chabad Rav, Rabbi Rivkin to provide a sefer torah and a baal koreh and we had a shabbaton on Shabbos. I asked my friends and youngest son, Yoni, to come for Shabbos with my wife Chani. The Yankee Legends gladly agreed to play the Dream Game against us on Friday afternoon and on Wednesday afternoon. I got to play in two Dream Games getting a hit off of Al Downing and batting against David Wells.

I discovered that since most of the Yankees lived in North Jersey, Riverdale, or Westchester, they lived among Jews and were very friendly with them. Tommy John lived in Closter, NJ and said his sons played little league with the local Jewish children. Since I was one of the only Orthodox Jews at the camp and I wore my yarmulka, various Yankees would come and ask me questions. I was once on first base, after getting a hit, and Tommy John who was nearby asked me if Judaism has female rabbis. I told Tommy that this is not a simple answer and can it wait until I finished my baserunning. After the half inning I went over to Tommy, who was the friendliest and nicest person and told him that there are three major groups of Jews: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. The Orthodox do not have women rabbis (this was before liberal Orthodoxy ordained women), while Conservative and Reform Jews do have female rabbis.

He thought for a moment and said that there are similarities in Christianity with various denominations that do and do not ordain women. Another question that Ron Blomberg asked me as I am about to go up to bat. “Rabbi,” He called me Rabbi. “Do you wear a yarmulka when you go to sleep and how do keep it from not falling off.” I asked “Coach” if I can answer he question after I finishing batting. After I batted I told Ron that I wear a kippah when I go to sleep since I say prayers when I go to sleep (“shema” and “hamapil”) and I say prayers when I wake up (“modeh ani”). I then told him it may fall off and if it does, I look for it and place it back on my head.

The third Yankee Legend to ask me some questions was Fritz Peterson. He was now about 350 lbs and had become a pastor. He said he was writing a book about religion and had some questions about Judaism that he wanted to ask me. I suggested he speak to Rabbi Rivkin, but he wanted to speak to me. Fritz’s first question was, “Does Judaism believe in Heaven.” I answered yes, but it is not mentioned in the Torah, our Bible. Of courses his next question was, “Do you believe in Hell.” I again answered yes, but again told him that it is not mentioned in the Torah. That was it, No explanations or additional questions.

Two additional stories about Tommy John. When my teenage son Yoni met Tommy at Fantasy Camp he did not believe there was a person named Tommy John. He knew of the famous and popular surgery, but did not believe that it was named after anyone, especially the first ballplayer to have it performed on him.

A second story was about our Kosher Fantasy Camp. One of the Orthodox campers was a woman who came to play with the men. She wore a skirt, but wore uniform pants with her full uniform when she played with us. They gave her a special place to change. Tommy worked with her on her hitting. He didn’t have to but he wanted her to do well and enjoy herself. That was something special about Tommy which made him part of Kosher Fantasy Camp. When the Yankees saw how much she enjoyed being part of the all male Fantasy Camp, they decided to create a Women’s Fantasy Camp which is offered every year.

Tommy John. A good friend and someone we will miss.