John Thorn

World Series Centennial Review, at Our Game: 1926. Alexander, Lazzeri, Ruth, and more with, despite its shopworn past, elements that may be new to you. ourgame.mlblogs.com/world-series...

Hail and farewell, Ross Newhan.

A blast from the past: author bio on back flap of first book, 1974.

Please have exact change ready; no betting allowed. Both signs now seem as quaint as the ticket prices (and the tickets). The Polo Grounds, West 155th Street and Eighth Avenue; downward entrance at Coogan's Bluff.

MLB pitcher Oscar Levis (Levy) was Black, and he was Jewish; a great new story. His WAR of 12.9 ranks 8th all-time among Jewish pitchers: Koufax (48.9), Fried (32.3), Holtzman (27.3), Roberts (23.6), Pelty (19.2), Stone (17.1), Mayer (13.5). www.jta.org/2026/10/23/s... h/t Brad Kolodny

Although some men have worn a lesser number mathematically (i.e., zero) Eddie Gaedel remains the only @mlb player with a fraction on his jersey.

“[In 1987] George brought a little cake to my dressing room. In the photo, there is me with George and Jeff Lynne, Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan, [Benmont Tench] and Mike Campbell — all of my favorite people right there, and it was so sweet.” - Tom Petty Remembering Tom Petty on his birthday.

This used to be the #5, and then it was the #4, and now it’s the #3 and sometimes the #2. There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of this trend.

The original Madison Square Garden, aka P.T. Barnum's Great Roman Hippodrome, aka Gilmore's Garden; from the program of Monday, August 3, 1874.

An event this weekend has prompted a picture essay about Opening Day at the first Polo Grounds, on April 29, 1886. Hoss Radbourn made his debut for Boston but the Giants won in dramatic fashion, in the bottom of the eleventh. ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-...

Palindromic palliative for Red Sox fans after wild-card loss to the the Yankees: Boston, O do not sob.

The famously scarce Currier & Ives litho of 1866, "The American National Game of Base Ball." How was Jim Creighton depicted in a game that occurred three years after his death? See one of my better bits of sleuthing at: ourgame.mlblogs.com/unraveling-a...

Written with Pete Palmer so long ago (can it be 42 years?). Pretty good, I think, still. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-music-of...

I love taking the train between San Diego and Los Angeles since it's such a gorgeous view but there's just no way it'll still exist on the same track a generation from now. www.instagram.com/reels/DeSCAh...

Nobody had ever seen a tight end like Mike Ditka when he hit the #NFL in 1961: 56 catches, 1,076 yards, 12 TDs. Only 4 other TEs have had a 50-1,000-12 season since. And Iron Mike did it in 14 games for a run-first team, the #Bears. An amazing player before winning the Super Bowl as a coach. R.I.P.

Hail and farewell, Mike Ditka.

Simply great ... I had not seen this 1992 documentary before: Larry Hogan's "Before You Can Say Jackie Robinson." Veterans of the Negro Leagues (Leon Day, Monte Irvin, Larry Doby, more) tell their stories; Amiri Baraka, too. So many old friends took part. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G29...

Chris Sale vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be the 3rd SP matchup in postseason history between pitchers who had previously gotten the final out of a World Series, joining: 1938 WS G2 Dizzy Dean, Lefty Gomez 1911 WS G3 Christy Mathewson, Jack Coombs h/t @EliasSports

Is this THE golden era of Dodgers baseball, or do we look to the Boys of Summer? Bill Shaikin addresses the question, in the LA Times today. (I make a cameo appearance.) www.latimes.com/sports/dodge...

A delightful review of "The Ballpark and Beyond," from PRINT www.printmag.com/publication-...

On this date in 1845: first baseball game to be recorded in scorebook of Knickerbocker Ball Club, played at Elysian Fields of Hoboken. Alex Cartwright plays, William R. Wheaton umps.

Hail and farewell, Sam McDowell.

The Mets open in New York--not in 1962 but in 1880, launching the first version of the Polo Grounds. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-mets-ope...

Recently acquired: Skating at Forest Park, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Sunday, Jan 17, 1904. Artist: Alfred Russell. ("Meet Me in St. Louis, Looie")

Thomson at the Ferry, by Kevin Baker. From "The Glory Days: New York Baseball, 1947–1957" (Collins, 2007). ourgame.mlblogs.com/thomson-at-t...

This turned up on the web. Not the most brilliant thought ever thunk, but not bad. As my son Jed, a scholar of ancient Greece, pointed out, "nostos" = coming home, "algia" = pain. Not the treacly stuff served up by greeting-card vendors, and regarded as history by the credulous.

Hands of Doug Allison, former catcher withe Cincinnati Red Stockings, showing results of baseball playing, Palmar and Dorsal surfaces. Feb. 12, 1889.

An email request from an MLB colleague regarding the public-domain status of the term "Murderers' Row" has prompted me to re-read a (rather good) story dating to 2004, when I wrote it for The Woodstock Times. ourgame.mlblogs.com/bees-knees-a...

Written ten years ago #OTD, Facebook tells me. "Today MLB gathers more data points in a single game than were available to Pete Palmer and I for the whole of baseball history when we wrote The Hidden Game of Baseball in 1984." www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/m...