John Thorn
John Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a noted sports historian, and the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.[1][2]
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[edit] Early life
Thorn was born in Stuttgart, West Germany.[2] His Polish Jewish parents had come there as refugees.[1] He immigrated to the United States in 1949. He graduated from Beloit College in 1968.[1][3]
[edit] Career
Thorn is the author and editor of numerous books, including Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball,[1] Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Football, Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame, The Hidden Game of Baseball,[1] The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957, and The Armchair Book of Baseball.[1] He founded Total Sports Publishing and served as its publisher from 1998–2002. Thorn served as the senior creative consultant for the Ken Burns documentary Baseball.[3]
In 2004 Thorn discovered documentation that traced the origins of baseball in America to 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In June 2006 SABR awarded Thorn its highest award, the Bob Davids Award.[4] The award honors those whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert "Bob" Davids.
On March 1, 2011, Thorn was named the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.[3] "Thorn succeeds the late Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times baseball writer Jerome Holtzman, who served as Official Baseball Historian from 1999 until his death in 2008."[5] Thorn's most recent baseball book, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, was published with Simon and Schuster on March 15, 2011.[2][6]
Thorn is also the co-author with Pete Palmer and Bob Carroll of The Hidden Game of Football and with them co-editors of Total Football. His book New York 400, a graphical history of the city timed for its quadricentennial, created with the Museum of the City of New York and Running Press, was published in September 2009. Thorn is a columnist for Voices, the publication of the New York Folklore Society.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Baseball: the writer's game. http://books.google.com/books?id=F3QQbDSdmg4C&pg=PA245&dq=%22John+Thorn%22+baseball#v=onepage&q=%22John%20Thorn%22%20baseball&f=false. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
- ^ a b c George Robinson. "Batter Up, Historically Speaking". The Jewish Week. http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/new_york_minute/batter_up_historically_speaking. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Q&A with John Thorn, baseball historian". StarTribune.com. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/118691859.html. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
- ^ "Bob Davids Award – John Thorn". Society for American Baseball Research. SABR. http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,1862,43,0. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
- ^ "John Thorn Named Official Baseball Historian". http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20110301&content_id=16776310&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.
- ^ "Received: Baseball in the Garden of Eden". NotGraphs. http://www.fangraphs.com/not/index.php/received-baseball-in-the-garden-of-eden/. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
