Tom Gordon was the first member of the 2008 Phillies to retire. But he never left the game.

Tom Gordon had already spent more than 20 seasons in the majors, yet he wanted to see if he could hang on just a little longer and pitch against his son.

But his right elbow — which was surgically repaired the previous fall — was no longer cooperating.

“It was just in complete shambles,” Gordon said. “It was bothering me so bad that I couldn’t get it ready. I knew when it was time.”

His elbow allowed Gordon to make three All-Star teams, pitch in three decades, play for eight teams, win a World Series ring, and earn the nickname “Flash.”

But the elbow was done. The pain caused Gordon to miss most of the previous season, forcing him to watch from the dugout when the Phillies won the World Series just a week after his surgery. Now the elbow was pushing him out of the game.

The Diamondbacks released him in August 2009 before a game against the Mets at Shea Stadium. And that is how the first member of the 2008 world champions was pushed into retirement after compiling 158 saves.

“I felt awful,” Gordon said. “I just thought, ‘God, I can’t believe this is over.’ But I knew it was over because I just couldn’t do the things I enjoyed doing. I just couldn’t get it done.

“I didn’t want to leave the game with a bad taste in my mouth. I always wanted to leave the game knowing that baseball gave me and my family the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I have two sons playing in the major leagues. I had two brothers play professional baseball. I mean, a lifetime. There was no way I could ever leave this game without giving back.”

It wasn’t often that the Pepperdine University baseball team crossed paths with a major-leaguer, which is why the Waves cornered Ed Farmer in the dugout every time he stopped by their field. Farmer pitched 11 seasons in the big leagues, including two separate stints with the Phillies.

Farmer spent the winter in Los Angeles and stayed in shape at Pepperdine’s field in Malibu, Calif. The college kids played catch with the big-leaguer, watched him run and go through other drills to get ready for another season. And then they waited for him to sit in the dugout.

“When we knew he was sitting down and relaxing, we would pepper him with questions,” Rick Thurman said. “We wanted to know what was in his brain. How he lived. How he goes about it.”

Farmer was great — “I think most ex-players love to bestow their knowledge onto other people,” Thurman said — and the Pepperdine kids never forgot it. Thurman played in the Dodgers’ system before spending 40 years as a sports agent with the Beverly Hills Sports Council, the company he co-created to represent a cast of stars and Hall of Famers.

He divested his stake in 2021 and a year later purchased Perfect Game, a leading youth baseball program that holds events and tournaments for elite players.

Thurman knew that his program needed people like Farmer, former big leaguers who could teach the kids and tell them what they needed to do to chase their dreams. So he called Flash Gordon, whom he represented for his entire career and was already working for Perfect Game as a director of community relations.

» READ MORE: What if Scott Rolen had chosen to remain with the Phillies?

“He’ll spend hours with kids, walking them through scenarios and about his professional experience,” said Thurman, who is the chairman of Perfect Game. “What to be ready for before they get drafted. How to prepare themselves not just for baseball but for life.

“He’s special. That’s what these kids’ goals are. To go play pro ball, to play college ball, or just become the best they can be. We’ve been successful integrating the major-league players and I attribute that success to Flash. These are all guys who are his friends and respect him. He’s pretty much the ringleader.”

Gordon toasted his career over dinner with Gary Sheffield, who was playing for the Mets the day Gordon was released. And then he returned home to Florida.

He decided to take a few years off and follow his sons. Dee Strange-Gordon was then a minor-leaguer. Nick Gordon was traveling the youth baseball circuit before being drafted in 2014.

“I remember traveling to Tennessee for an event with Nicholas and a scout came up to me,” Gordon said. “He said, ‘Flash, you’ll never ever leave the game.’ He was right. I’m never leaving.”

The adjustment to retirement — every member of the 2008 Phillies has now walked away — can be difficult. For Gordon, the beginning was a challenge. He missed his teammates and the routine he followed all those years.

But he didn’t have to miss the game. He would spend a week with Dee in whatever minor-league city he was in and coached Nick’s teams on the weekends.

» READ MORE: Looking back at Cole Hamels’ top moments in a Phillies uniform

Gordon joined Perfect Game after Nick was drafted by the Twins as a way to keep giving back to the game. He helps run their tournaments, coaches teams of 11-year-old ballplayers, and helps parents navigate the circuit that he traveled with his sons.

And he has brought along a bunch of former big-leaguers — players like José Rijo, Ryan Klesko, Charles Johnson, and Francisco Cervelli.

“We want to share the information we gained from our careers. We don’t own it,” Gordon said. “I want to give that information back, and the kids receive it very well. At this age, they’re so talented. It’s unreal. I don’t think when I was 11, I could’ve played with some of the kids that I see as 11 years old.”

Gordon, 55, teaches kids the pitching lessons he learned in the backyard from his father, Tom, who returned home from work every night to play catch, coached Gordon’s Little League team, and pitched on the weekends in a men’s league.

He remembers the things Rich Dubee — “What a brilliant mind in the game,” Gordon said — told him in Philadelphia and still marvels about the times he stood next to Mel Stottlemyre at Yankee Stadium to study how Mariano Rivera threw his cutter.

Gordon still hopes to be a big-league pitching coach and was even a finalist with the Mets. For now, he has found his next chapter in baseball molding the future.

“If that never happens, what I’m doing right now, this gig right now is so amazing,” Gordon said. “I don’t look back hoping that I would’ve done something different that would’ve helped me become a pitching coach. This gig is pretty nice. I get to meet some great kids and some great families.”

Gordon had surgery in October 2008, a week before the Phillies won the city’s first championship in 25 years. But the 40-year-old pitcher knew a year earlier that a procedure was needed.

His elbow was shot in September 2007 while the Phillies were in the midst of a magical month. They erased a seven-game deficit with 17 games to play and captured the division title on the season’s final day as the Mets collapsed. Gordon, sore elbow and all, kept pitching. He appeared in 13 of the team’s final 16 games, holding hitters to a .158 average while somehow holding his arm together.

“Me and Charlie Manuel had a great relationship,” Gordon said. “I said, ‘Chuck, man, I don’t think the best move is right now for me to have surgery because then you won’t have anyone in the bullpen. I’ll bear this out. I’ll be fine. This will be OK.’

“He would call the bullpen all the time. ‘Flash, how do you feel?’ ‘I can get it done today for you, buddy.’ ”

» READ MORE: The making of an icon: How Chase Utley became 'The Man' for the Phillies

A year later, there was no way for Gordon to pitch through the pain. He landed on the injured list in July and tried to rehab his elbow a month later in Florida. Gordon tried everything, even throwing a football like he heard Nolan Ryan once say. Nothing worked. He was done.

Gordon returned to the Phillies for the World Series, knowing that he would be a spectator for his first trip to the Fall Classic after chasing it all those years. Manuel told Gordon that he wanted him to stand behind him the whole time. No way, Gordon said. He didn’t want to get in the manager’s way.

“Chuck said, ‘Little buddy, here’s the deal,’ ” Gordon said. “ ‘I’m going to look for you for information. I want you to stand directly behind me.’ Once the game started, I was right behind him standing against the wall before you went down the tunnel.”

Gordon dreamed years earlier of pitching the last out of a World Series, but there he was in the dugout with a red Phillies jacket as Brad Lidge loaded up for the final strike. Eleven months later, his career was over. But his life in baseball was far from finished.

“It was so important and paramount to me,” Gordon said. “Here I am, 20th season of my career, and I had been so close so many times before. Now, finally, I’m one pitch away.

“We have one of the greatest closers in all of baseball. I was at peace. It was something else the way they made it feel. I didn’t feel like I didn’t get the chance to pitch. I was in such a place of peace. God had given me peace because I had given Philly everything I had, every single thing. I love Philadelphia. I love the way the organization treated me.”