Person

John Thorn

Bylines

Speed Kills

Two striking reminders of the game-changing potential of great speed and its limited value unless accompanied by other essential skills.

by John Thorn via Our Game on October 7, 2024
Base Ball Patents

Searching for the first, in the 1860s.

by John Thorn via Medium on January 2, 2024
Baseball in the Garden of Eden

“Who controls the past,” George Orwell wrote, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” So it has been with baseball.

by John Thorn via Our Game on July 17, 2023

Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game

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John Thorn photographed in front of baseball memorabilia.

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Smithsonian on March 28, 2024

A drawing of a crowd watching a baseball game in 1886.

Before ‘Fans,’ There Were ‘Kranks,’ ‘Longhairs,’ and ‘Lions’

How do fandoms gain their names?

by Elizabeth Minkel via Atlas Obscura on May 30, 2024

John Montgomery Ward and Helen Dauvray.

Before Taylor and Travis, There Was Helen and John

She was an actress. He was a shortstop. What we can learn from the press parade around this 19th-century power couple.

by Scott D. Peterson via Zócalo Public Square on January 11, 2024

A Chicago Cubs pitcher warms up.

An "Old-Fashioned Pitchers' Duel" Didn't Always Mean What You Think

A deep dive into the historical context and changing meanings of a time-honored term.

by Lauren Theisen via Defector on September 14, 2023

George H.W. Bush, wearing a Yale baseball uniform, receives the manuscript of Babe Ruth’s autobiography.

In Babe Ruth’s Final Steps on Public Stage, Two Brushes With History

Babe Ruth's final days revealed his mortality, and made more history, when he encountered a future U.S. president.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Washington Post on June 13, 2023

Newspaper clipping featuring giant championship bat being presented to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Turned Baseball into a National Sensation

Meet the team that transformed baseball from a pastime to an industry.

by Robert Wyss via The Conversation on March 27, 2019

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