John Thorn
@johnthorn.bsky.social
Official Historian, Major League Baseball. Since 2011, I have posted a story a week at ourgame.mlblogs.com. Past though timeless tales available at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/archive. Views are my own, not those of MLB. Nerdy badinage a specialty.
According to Joe Gould, whose secret was immortalized by Joseph Mitchell, "the Indians considered themselves smarter than white men, because they had more time to think. They realize that punctuality is the thief of time. The more time a man gives to his engagements the less he has for himself."
November 14, 2025 at 4:44 PM
According to Joe Gould, whose secret was immortalized by Joseph Mitchell, "the Indians considered themselves smarter than white men, because they had more time to think. They realize that punctuality is the thief of time. The more time a man gives to his engagements the less he has for himself."
In honor of Veterans Day, here is a photo of the oldest known American war image, depicting General John Ellis Wool during the Mexican War commenced in 1846. And because there is always a baseball angle, a dag of Abner Doubleday at the Battle of Buena Vista, near Saltillo, 1847.
November 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
In honor of Veterans Day, here is a photo of the oldest known American war image, depicting General John Ellis Wool during the Mexican War commenced in 1846. And because there is always a baseball angle, a dag of Abner Doubleday at the Battle of Buena Vista, near Saltillo, 1847.
Fine story by @lukepplin about Arnold Hano, whom I knew a little bit. lepplin.substack.com/p/what-arnol...
What Arnold Hano Gave Me
Or What to Do with What You Can’t Use
lepplin.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Fine story by @lukepplin about Arnold Hano, whom I knew a little bit. lepplin.substack.com/p/what-arnol...
Thinking today about Jim Devlin: ourgame.mlblogs.com/i-am-honest-...
“I Am Honest, Harry”
The final weeks of the 1877 National League season witnessed a mysterious collapse of the Louisville club, permitting Boston to take the…
ourgame.mlblogs.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Thinking today about Jim Devlin: ourgame.mlblogs.com/i-am-honest-...
Hail and farewell, Lenny Wilkens.
November 9, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Hail and farewell, Lenny Wilkens.
Hail and farewell, James Watson. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
James Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Hail and farewell, James Watson. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/s...
Reposted by John Thorn
This is a great read!
Compiling the games from this tour was one of my favorite things I’ve done for Retrosheet (or, really, anywhere). www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
Compiling the games from this tour was one of my favorite things I’ve done for Retrosheet (or, really, anywhere). www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
November 4, 2025 at 1:54 AM
This is a great read!
Compiling the games from this tour was one of my favorite things I’ve done for Retrosheet (or, really, anywhere). www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
Compiling the games from this tour was one of my favorite things I’ve done for Retrosheet (or, really, anywhere). www.retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
How was a baseball game scored before there were scorebooks? These two images provide the answer: a scoring stick, with a notch for each run scored by one team on the top, and for the other, the bottom. This is why a game has a "score" and why a pitcher notches a win.
November 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
How was a baseball game scored before there were scorebooks? These two images provide the answer: a scoring stick, with a notch for each run scored by one team on the top, and for the other, the bottom. This is why a game has a "score" and why a pitcher notches a win.
Somehow new to me. Of course there have been many great finds since 1994. See: protoball.org.
November 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Somehow new to me. Of course there have been many great finds since 1994. See: protoball.org.
My video interview with Global News, yesterday. globalnews.ca/video/115082...
Baseball History in the making | Watch News Videos Online
Watch Baseball History in the making Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca
globalnews.ca
November 4, 2025 at 2:38 PM
My video interview with Global News, yesterday. globalnews.ca/video/115082...
O Canada: the consolations of history. ourgame.mlblogs.com/o-canada-17f...
O Canada
For the 2025 World Series, the consolations of history
ourgame.mlblogs.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:53 PM
O Canada: the consolations of history. ourgame.mlblogs.com/o-canada-17f...
Reposted by John Thorn
This is such a classy thing for the Blue Jays to do.
Blue Jays Pitchers Send Message to Dodgers' Alex Vesia in Game 6 of World Series
The four relievers who pitched in relief of starter Kevin Gausman in Game 6 on Friday all had something in common — but you had to look carefully to find it and
www.si.com
November 1, 2025 at 4:53 AM
This is such a classy thing for the Blue Jays to do.
Brilliant story by @DaveSheinin. My favorite, the "This Week in Baseball" theme by John Scott, has been my phone's ringtone, like, forever. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...
The 10 best sports theme songs of all time — and what makes them great
Our list of the greatest sports theme music includes John Tesh’s iconic “Roundball Rock,” several dark riffs on football and a whole lot of nostalgia.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 1, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Brilliant story by @DaveSheinin. My favorite, the "This Week in Baseball" theme by John Scott, has been my phone's ringtone, like, forever. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...
Game 7 in Canada. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFX9...
Remember (A Tribute to the Montreal Expos) by Annakin Slayd
YouTube video by Annakin Slayd
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Game 7 in Canada. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFX9...
Who tonight will join Derek Jeter as Mr. November?
November 1, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Who tonight will join Derek Jeter as Mr. November?
Slide, Kelly, Slide: 1927 Yankees melodrama. A rookie pitcher gets drunk before a big game and is fired. In Game 7 of the World Series, the Yankees run out of pitchers (foreshadowing today). The batboy finds the fired star, who pitches till the end and scores the winning run.
October 30, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Slide, Kelly, Slide: 1927 Yankees melodrama. A rookie pitcher gets drunk before a big game and is fired. In Game 7 of the World Series, the Yankees run out of pitchers (foreshadowing today). The batboy finds the fired star, who pitches till the end and scores the winning run.
Of the 5 intentional walks in Game 3 last night, 4 were issued to Ohtani, 1 to Betts. No run scored as a result of any ... yet each walk had a run value. F.C. Lane wrote about this in 1917. So did Pete Palmer and I in "Hidden Game of Baseball," in 1984. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-base-on-...
The Base on Balls
Why Should the Records Ignore This Powerful Factor in Brainy Baseball?
ourgame.mlblogs.com
October 28, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Of the 5 intentional walks in Game 3 last night, 4 were issued to Ohtani, 1 to Betts. No run scored as a result of any ... yet each walk had a run value. F.C. Lane wrote about this in 1917. So did Pete Palmer and I in "Hidden Game of Baseball," in 1984. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-base-on-...
My software impasse with Medium has been resolved and stories written for Our Game, previously in a sort of purgatory, though published at Medium, are now at the accustomed homepage, though in nonchronological order. Today's post was: ourgame.mlblogs.com/world-series...
October 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
My software impasse with Medium has been resolved and stories written for Our Game, previously in a sort of purgatory, though published at Medium, are now at the accustomed homepage, though in nonchronological order. Today's post was: ourgame.mlblogs.com/world-series...
Every year, I review the World Series of 100 years ago, and 75, and 50, and 25. This time, the big story is the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925. ourgame.mlblogs.com/world-series...
World Series Centennial Review: 1925
As per custom at this time of year
ourgame.mlblogs.com
October 27, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Every year, I review the World Series of 100 years ago, and 75, and 50, and 25. This time, the big story is the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925. ourgame.mlblogs.com/world-series...
This expresses no selection (or wish) for an outcome in 2025. My pal Dinn Mann shot this at the 2018 World Series. When I was ten, in 1957, I thought the Brooklyn Dodgers were packing their steamer trunks for a holiday, soon to return to Ebbets Field.
October 26, 2025 at 3:26 PM
This expresses no selection (or wish) for an outcome in 2025. My pal Dinn Mann shot this at the 2018 World Series. When I was ten, in 1957, I thought the Brooklyn Dodgers were packing their steamer trunks for a holiday, soon to return to Ebbets Field.
As the NBA season opens, this is a good story on the early days of "basket ball." www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
The Hudson Valley’s forgotten role in basketball history
Hudson Valley teams and Jewish players helped invent modern basketball’s style, decades before the NBA.
www.timesunion.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:29 PM
As the NBA season opens, this is a good story on the early days of "basket ball." www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
Especially good today:
October 21, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Especially good today:
Reposted by John Thorn
"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life."
Hemingway's short, spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech www.themarginalian.org/2013/03/21/e...
Hemingway's short, spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech www.themarginalian.org/2013/03/21/e...
Work Alone: Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Acceptance Speech
“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.”
www.themarginalian.org
October 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life."
Hemingway's short, spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech www.themarginalian.org/2013/03/21/e...
Hemingway's short, spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech www.themarginalian.org/2013/03/21/e...
Tom Thress writes, re: Ohtani. I was curious how many games Retrosheet has in which a pitcher struck out 10 and hit more homers than he allowed hits: on 6/6/1921, Bill Gatewood fanned 10 and hit a homer (first no-hitter in Negro National League).
retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
Retrosheet Boxscore: Detroit Stars (DT1) 4 Cincinnati Cubans (CNN) 0
retrosheet.org
October 20, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Tom Thress writes, re: Ohtani. I was curious how many games Retrosheet has in which a pitcher struck out 10 and hit more homers than he allowed hits: on 6/6/1921, Bill Gatewood fanned 10 and hit a homer (first no-hitter in Negro National League).
retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues...
James R. Harrison wrote an account of the 1925 World Series finale that is, for my tastes, a model of its kind. I offer it as an antidote to the stat-laden reports that are too often produced today, derived from play-by-plays and, for some outlets, A.I. medium.com/@thorn_john_...
Pirate Victory Caps Weirdest of Games
Sportswritese as It Used to Be
medium.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:11 PM
James R. Harrison wrote an account of the 1925 World Series finale that is, for my tastes, a model of its kind. I offer it as an antidote to the stat-laden reports that are too often produced today, derived from play-by-plays and, for some outlets, A.I. medium.com/@thorn_john_...