The first Tommy John surgery was on September 25, 1974

On this day in 1974, in a revolutionary surgical operation, Dr. Frank Jobe repaired Tommy John's damaged UCL. The procedure, now known as Tommy John surgery, gave the southpaw, who was unlikely to ever be able to pitch again, an opportunity to post an additional 164 victories

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) September 26, 2021

Happy 79th Birthday to Tommy John! After his revolutionary surgery in 1974 at age 31, Tommy won 164 more games, made three All-Star teams and was the NL Cy Young runner-up in '77. pic.twitter.com/znW0flHvsT

— 1974 Baseball Tweets (@1974Baseball) May 22, 2022

2x Tommy John club among active MLB pitchers that have made it back (via @MLBPlayerAnalys's TJ database):

Daniel Hudson
Cole Sulser
Nathan Eovaldi
Pete Fairbanks
Drew Rasmussen
Anderson Espinoza
Cole Ragans
Matt Bush
Jameson Taillon
Caleb Ferguson
Mike Clevinger
Kirby Yates https://t.co/p0CbTRIzyT

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) August 23, 2022

Percentage of pitchers used in MLB who have had Tommy John surgery (excluding position players pitching), by season:

2016: 26.4% (190 different pitchers)
2017: 25.0% (183)
2018: 27.1% (202)
2019: 29.8% (230)
2020: 30.8% (220)
2021: 30.5% (260)
2022: 34.0% (274)

— Jon Roegele (@MLBPlayerAnalys) December 14, 2022

Love this uni-stirrup-color combo! Tommy John @whitesox toiled on the South Side from 1965 to '71, going 82-80, with a 2.95 ERA (117 ERA+) and twice led the AL in shutouts. Is he a Hall of Famer? Won 288 in career, logged 4710.1 IP. His @sabr bio https://t.co/e3lmQrQGra pic.twitter.com/Y9U2zZEAH5

— SABR BioProject (@SABRbioproject) December 17, 2022