Next time, just hold the ball

Pitcher Tommy John commits only 49 errors in his 26 seasons in the major leagues.

That’s not bad at all.

What is bad, though, comes 35 years ago today as John, then with the New York Yankees, accomplishes an ignominious feat that no other player has done in the first 155 seasons of pro baseball as he commits three errors on one play.

The gaffes come with one out in the top of the fourth inning against Milwaukee in a 1988 game at Yankee Stadium.

John first mishandles Jeffrey Leonard’s soft grounder back to him for error No. 1, which John follows up with a pair of throwing errors to allow two more runs – including one by Leonard – to score.

Mind you, this hardly impacts John, who pitches the first eight innings of what turns out to be New York’s 16-3 beating of the Brewers.

The victory is the 285th of 288 in John’s Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Yankee announcers Phil Rizzuto and Bill White try to sort out the play at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bub07gwRgzY