John Thorn

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 initially settled in The Bronx, New York.{{cite book |title=Baseball: The Writer's Game |publisher=Brassey's Books |date=2002 |first=Mike |last=Shannon |isbn=1574884212 |url-access=registration |page=245 |url=https://archive.org/details/baseballwritersg00shan/page/244/mode/2up}}

Of his love for baseball, Thorn said: "I fell in love with [baseball] cards before I loved the game, when I discovered that baseball was something that all the kids on my street corner cared about... 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."{{cite web|author=Kahrl, Christina |url=http://sabr.org/research/henry-chadwick-award-john-thorn |title=Henry Chadwick Award: John Thorn |publisher=Society of American Baseball Research}}

As a teen, he played baseball and basketball at Richmond Hill High School.{{cite web |title=John Thorn Interview; American Masters |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/archive/interview/john-thorn/ |website=PBS |date=October 19, 2017 |quote=I played in Madison Square Garden in the semifinal championships in nineteen sixty one from Richmond Hill High School.}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.hardballtimes.com/interview-john-thorn/ |author=Jaffe, Chris |title=Interview: John Thorn |work=The Hardball Times |date=December 4, 2007}}

Thorn attended Beloit College, from which he graduated in 1968.

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."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/books/review/book-review-baseball-in-the-garden-of-eden-by-john-thorn.html?_r=0 |last=Weber |first=Bruce |title=The Prehistory of Baseball |newspaper=The New York Times |date= April 8, 2011}}

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 to 2002.{{cite news |title=Total Sports Sells Publishing Division to Group led by Thorn |url=https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2000/09/06/Sports-Media/TOTAL-SPORTS-SELLS-PUBLISHING-DIVISION-TO-GROUP-LED-BY-THORN.aspx |date=September 6, 2000 |newspaper=Sports Business Journal}}

Thorn served as the senior creative consultant for the 1994 Ken Burns documentary Baseball.{{cite news|url=http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/118691859.html|title=Q&A with John Thorn, baseball historian |newspaper=Star Tribune|date=March 27, 2011}}

In 2004, Thorn discovered documentation tracing the origins of baseball in America to 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/sports/baseball-now-pittsfield-stakes-claim-to-baseball-s-origins.html |author=Litsky, Frank |title=Now Pittsfield Stakes Claim to Baseball's Origins |newspaper=The New York Times |date= 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."{{cite web |url=http://m.mlb.com/news/article/16934236/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219104417/http://m.mlb.com/news/article/16934236 |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 19, 2015 |author=Singer, Tom |title=MLB historian sheds new light on game's origin |website=MLB.com |date=March 13, 2011}} 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.{{cite web|title=Bob Davids Award: John Thorn|url=https://sabr.org/awards/winner/john-thorn/|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research}}

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 in the role 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.{{Cite web |title=Baseball Historian John Thorn'68 Applauds Inclusion of the Negro Leagues |date=April 29, 2011 |url=https://www.beloit.edu/live/news/2699-baseball-historian-john-thorn68-applauds-inclusion |first=Susan |last=Kasten |website=beloit.edu |publisher=Beloit College}} On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball said that statistics from the Negro Leagues will officially become part of the MLB's historical record.{{Cite web |date=2024-05-29 |title=Negro Leagues statistics to be officially incorporated into MLB historical record |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/negro-leagues-mlb-baseball-records-rcna154409 |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=NBC News |language=en}}

Thorn has three sons from two previous marriages. He is currently married to Erica Freudenberger, former director of the Red Hook Public Library in Red Hook, New York, and who is currently affiliated with the Southern Adirondack Library System.{{cite web |url=http://salsblog.sals.edu/2017/01/03/welcome-erica-freudenberger/ |title=Announcement of Freudenberger's new position |publisher=Southern Adirondack Library System}}

He and his wife live in Catskill, New York where they moved in 2010. He claims to have been drawn to the town because of its "slow pace," which suits him because, as Thorn asserts, "I pride myself on being the world's most boring man."{{cite magazine|author=Post, Paul |url=http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/October-2011/John-Thorn-An-Interview-with-Major-League-Baseball-Historian-Hudson-Valley-Catskill-NY-Resident-and-Author-of-Treasures-of-the-Baseball-Hall-of-Fame/ |title=John Thorn: An Interview with Major League Baseball Historian, Hudson Valley (Catskill, NY) Resident, and Author of Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame |magazine=Hudson Valley Magazine |date=October 2011}}

Thorn's great-grandfather was magician Ernest Thorn; the two share their middle name "Abraham".{{cite web |last1=Thorn |first1=John |title=Magician's Blood |url=https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/magicians-blood-81af2e4f0ec2 |website=Our Game |publisher=MLBlogs.com |date=August 1, 2017}}

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• {{cite news |last1=Frommer |first1=Frederic J. |title=How Baseball's Official Historian Dug Up the Game's Unknown Origins |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/baseball-official-historian-dug-up-games-unknown-origins-180983981/ |work=Smithsonian |date=April 2024}}

• {{Official website|http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/|Our Game}} - Official Blog
• [https://sabr.org/authors/john-thorn/ John Thorn] at the Society for American Baseball Research
• {{IMDb name|id=1162303|name=John Thorn}}
• {{LCAuth|n80049796|John Thorn}}

{{Major League Baseball}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:American historians

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Category:Beloit College alumni

Category:Baseball statisticians

Category:Baseball writers

Category:Emigrants from Allied-occupied Germany to the United States

Category:Historians from New York (state)

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Category:Major League Baseball personnel

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Category:Sports historians

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Category:Writers from the Bronx

Category:Jews from New York (state)

Category:People from Catskill, New York