John Thorn

John A. Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a German-born sports historian, author, publisher, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.

Personal profile

Thorn was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in a displaced person's camp to which his Polish Jewish parents had come as refugees. Less than two years after Thorn was born, his family emigrated to the United States, and settled in The Bronx, New York City. "I fell in love with aseballcards before I loved the game, when I discovered that baseball was something that all the kids on my street corner cared about," Thorn said in a 2013 profile. "I was an immigrant kid and was looking for a way into America. With my background I saw myself as an underdog, and so Brooklyn had to be my team. I began watching the game seriously when I was eight, in 1955, on my Admiral television, but I had already begun to follow their exploits in the daily newspapers my father brought home with him each night."

As a teen, he played baseball and basketball. However, at age 19 he suffered a stroke. "It was severe," he said, "knocking out my left-side function for months as well as patches of personal memory—though not the powerful visual memory I retain for images and facts and statistics." The stroke left him with a limp and precluded his further participation in athletic activities.Jaffe, Chris, "Interview: John Thorn,"
''The Hardball Times'', December 4, 2007

Thorn graduated from Beloit College in 1968. He is married to Erica Freudenberger, former director of the Red Hook, New York, Public Library, who is currently affiliated with the Southern Adirondack Library System. He and his wife live in Catskill, New York,Post, Paul
"John Thorn: An Interview with Major League Baseball Historian, Hudson Valley (Catskill, NY) Resident, and Author of Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame"
''Hudson Valley Magazine'', October 2011 where they moved in 2010. He claims to have been drawn to the town because of its "slow pace," which suits him because, Thorn asserts, "I pride myself on being the world’s most boring man."

Thorn has three sons from two previous marriages.

Writings

Thorn is the author and editor of numerous books, including '' Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball'', ''Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Football'', ''Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame'', '' The Hidden Game of Baseball'', ''The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947–1957'', and ''The Armchair Book of Baseball''. His 2011 book, ''Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game'', published by Simon & Schuster, was an in-depth chronicle of the seminal development and pioneers of the sport. A ''New York Times'' review of the latter book referred to Thorn as "a researcher of colossal diligence."

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 graphic 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.

He founded Total Sports Publishing and served as its publisher from 1998–2002.

Role as historian

Thorn served as the senior creative consultant for the 1994 Ken Burns documentary ''Baseball''.

In 2004, Thorn discovered documentation tracing the origins of baseball in America to 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.Litsky, Frank, "Now Pittsfield Stakes Claim to Baseball's Origins,"
''The New York Times'', May 12, 2004 He has also attempted to shed light on the contributions of 19th century pioneers of the game, while debunking common misconceptions. "I don't want anyone to think of me as a crusader on behalf of causes," he wrote. "I'm only interested in setting the story straight, and in recognizing other stories for what they are, some of which are legend." Despite the claims of various localities to being the "birthplace of baseball," Thorn simply follows facts. "Abner Doubleday, Santa Claus, and Dracula," he notes, "are equally mythic figures."

In June 2006, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) bestowed on Thorn its highest accolade, the Bob Davids Award. The award honors those whose contributions to SABR and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the late founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert "Bob" Davids.

On March 1, 2011, John Thorn was named Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball, succeeding the late ''Chicago Tribune'' and ''Chicago Sun-Times'' baseball writer Jerome Holtzman, who served from 1999 until his death in 2008.

Thorn played an important role in the retroactive recategorization of the defunct Negro leagues, which existed during the segregation of baseball, as major leagues.

References

External links

Our Game
Thorn's official MLB-hosted baseball blog
* Thorn family blog (March 2005–May 2009)
Thornpricks

* John Thorn appearances in TV and film a
Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com)
* John Thor
Keynote Speech
at Society for American Baseball Research annual conference, Minneapolis MN, June 29, 2012
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorn, John
1947 births
Living people
Writers from Stuttgart
People from the Bronx
German emigrants to the United States
People from Catskill, New York
Beloit College alumni
Baseball statisticians
Baseball writers
Jewish American writers
Sports historians
Journalists from New York (state)
Sportswriters from New York (state)
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
21st-century American historians
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century German historians
20th-century American male writers
21st-century German historians
Writers from Baden-Württemberg
21st-century American male writers
21st-century German male writers
20th-century German male writers
Historians from New York (state)
21st-century American Jews
Major League Baseball personnel