John Thorn
@thorn_john
John Thorn is the Official Historian for Major League Baseball. His views are his own.
This story by @castrovince ran on July 7, before Mark Armour was ready to unveil his Satchel Paige Project: mlb.com/news/mapping-e…. But now it has come to fruition, at: marklaurencearmour.wordpress.com/2084-2/
How did baseball champions come to win a "pennant"? The custom goes back to 1871 ... and to the Middle Ages. I had cause to re-read this today, and rather liked it. ourgame.mlblogs.com/pennants-6b1d0…
Can you say "fantastic finish" to the MLB regular season?
The rest of the story, featuring Casey's Great Impostor, George Whitefield D'Vys. ourgame.mlblogs.com/casey-at-the-b…
“One swallow may not make a summer, but one poem makes a poet.” Casey at the Bat: The Controversy, Part One. ourgame.mlblogs.com/casey-at-the-b…
Oh wow, never seen this image, but the man holding the gun is Alex Skinner, who briefly played in the Union Association in 1884!
How do I love early baseball? Let me count the ways. Murder most foul at George Wright's Base Ball Emporium, @PoliceGazette, January 18, 1879.

First @MLB #AllStarGame between NL and AL? Not 1933 ... but 1902, in Kansas City, MO. By next season, NLers Bill Donovan, Sam Crawford, Jack Chesbro, and Willie Keeler will have switched leagues. (I have devised full identifications, but you may enjoy figuring out who is who.)

It's not every day that you get to read a new Pat Hobby story by F. Scott Fitzgerald in @NewYorker Flash Fiction. Today is the day. Double Time for Pat Hobby, written in the summer of 1940. I found it and am thrilled to see it in print ❤️ newyorker.com/books/flash-fi…
Tomorrow the Braves will host their fifth All-Star Game ... in five different ballparks. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-braves-all…
Lou Gehrig gave him a glove as a kid, and 75 years later he sold it for $287k 🤯 In the 1930s, Gehrig and his wife Eleanor visited their friends, the Henderson family in Bronxville, New York. While playing catch with 11-year-old Howard Henderson on the front lawn, Gehrig…
Bonus post to Our Game, while I take a midsummer break from "The Greatest Plays You Never Saw": ourgame.mlblogs.com/bang-the-drum-…