By Randy Peterson
Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa - The man with one of the most famous left elbows in baseball walked onto the field at Des Moines' Sec Taylor Stadium and, without glancing around a place he had never seen, asked:

"Who's the guy on your team that's had my surgery?"

Tommy John, meet Phil Norton of the Iowa Cubs.

"It was neat meeting him," Norton said. "I told him thanks - that he saved my career."

Norton is among the baseball pitchers who have had the surgery that, simplified, entails replacing a faulty elbow tendon with a good tendon from another part of the body.

When John and Norton hooked up recently in Des Moines, they talked about their procedures, compared 8-inch scars, then went on their way - John as the pitching coach for the Edmonton (Alberta) Trappers of the Pacific Coast League, and Norton, 27, a relief pitcher for the Iowa Cubs.

It's referred to as Tommy John surgery, because the four-time all-star was the first to try a form of surgery that has since resurrected more than one promising career, including Norton's.

"They told me I'd probably never, ever be able to play catch again," said John, who spent 25 seasons in the major leagues. "Boy, did I prove them wrong. They said I was one-in-a-hundred to come back."

The surgery was performed on John in September 1974 after the left-handed pitcher - then with the Los Angeles Dodgers - hurt his left arm. Team physician Frank Jobe determined the only way to fix the elbow was to transplant a tendon from his right forearm to his left elbow.

"Dr. Jobe said I probably wouldn't throw again," John said. "If I didn't have it done, he guaranteed that I'd never pitch again."

But John did pitch again, becoming, as Iowa pitching coach Jerry Reuss called him, "the first right-handed southpaw in baseball."

His first game after the surgery was April 16, 1976, in Atlanta. He was the starter, and lost. His first victory was against Pittsburgh 10 days later.

"The Dodgers' Bionic Arm," according to a newspaper headline, was reborn. The procedure that Jobe would go on to copyright as Tommy John Surgery was a big success.

After the surgery, John notched 164 of his 288 major league victories and had three 20-win seasons.

"I credit the surgery, obviously, but let's be realistic in another way," John said. "I was playing on better clubs after the surgery."

Norton developed elbow tenderness during the 2001 season while pitching for Iowa. His Tommy John surgery was performed on Jan. 11, 2002, by Chicago Cubs team physician Michael Schafer.

"Mine was pretty much the basic Tommy John surgery," said Norton, who sat out last season. "The doctor took a tendon from my left forearm and put it back in my left elbow."

Unlike John, Norton was told he'd most likely pitch again.

"The first thing Dr. Schafer told me was that this kind of surgery has been done so many times that it's like pulling a tooth," Norton said.

John's surgery lasted four hours; Norton's, 90 minutes. John wore a cast. Norton wore a light wrap.

"It's almost become commonplace for pitchers to have the surgery these days," John said.