Posts tagged as:

John Thorn

Kudos to the planning committee; they saved the best (IMHO) for last. (Note: this was written over the course of the day, so bear in mind the timeframe references.) The final full day began with meeting some old friends: Curt Smith, author of several excellent books about the legendary broadcasters of the game (photo below […]

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Extra, extra… or not

February 20, 2017

Been shirking my duties as a blogger here for any number of reasons: working on my own book, looking for full-time work, other blogs, ranting on Facebook (not necessarily in that order). But one of the things I wanted to mention was the misguided attempt by MLB to try to cater to people who maybe […]

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The new normal in baseball literature is to publish something — anything — that pushes baseball analytics as the only logical way to assemble a team. Michael Lewis’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game may may have been the first “official” book to address the concept, but there have been several since its […]

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Opinions vary

March 2, 2016

Graham Womack published this ranked list of the 25 greatest baseball books on The Sporting News site. When I wrote 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die, I made a decision not to put them in an order other than alphabetical to avoid having to defend my choices. Such a method invites arguments […]

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Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]

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Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]

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Just received the revised edition of The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics by John Thorn and Pete Palmer. Quite looking forward to it after I finish several New York-centric books for a feature for Bookreporter.com. (The original edition is included in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before […]

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And the wrap-up… * denotes items of particular interest (to me, at any rate). Odds and Ends ** It will be interesting to see how The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics has held up since it was first published 30 years ago. Authors John Thorn and Pete Palmer […]

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As discussed last week, Jim Brosnan’s contribution to the world of sports memoir has gone under-noticed. Only a couple of obituaries have appeared — The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post among them. Nothing of consequence from ESPN, or even MLB.com. I reached out to a couple of literary gentlemen for their […]

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I’m going to be writing a lot in the days and weeks to come about the fun new “Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American” exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and its companion book, a lovely anthology. To kick things off, and in recognition of the NCAA basketball tournament, here’s […]

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Yeh, I know, these don’t actually count as dispatches from, since the conference ended Sunday. But I didn’t have a laptop, the wifi wasn’t free, and I didn’t want to burn my data minutes (not to mention cramp my fingers) typing away on my iPhone. This was my fourth SABR meeting and each time I […]

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I don’t know about you, but being the curmudgeon that I am, I have trouble with the folks who jump on the baseball bandwagon once the regular season is over. This ain’t the NBA or NHL, bud, where everyone gets into the playoffs so you don’t have to pay attention until there are just a […]

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A while back I bought a Flip camera. Figured it would come in handy at some point. I took it to the Hofstra University Mets 50th Anniversary conference where I taped MLB historian John Thorn delivering the keynote address. Unfortunately that was all I was able to record because of battery issues. Have to figure […]

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Spent a pleasant three days at Hofstra University’s conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the New York Mets, much on on which later. Suffice it so say here that I met or re-meta lot of nice folks, many of whom are authors and/or bloggers, including my roomie, Matthew Silverman (several titles about the Mets), Stanley […]

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A match made in heaven?

April 5, 2012

John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, posted this piece about the launch of a new program, the Baseball Memory Lab. As Thorn explains: Baseball Memory Lab is a collaboration of MLB’s Origins Committee, which I chair, and MLB.com. Focusing on the intersection of personal history and baseball, this new forum  initially will spotlight two aspects of […]

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Congrats to Zachary James of Searsboro, Iowa, winner of the RKBB Facebook fan drawing, Curt Smith’s new book is A Talk in the Park: Nine Decades of Baseball Tales from the Broadcast Booth. (Yeah, I know it’s “like,” but that just sounds stupid in context, so I’m gonna keep on going with “fan.”) The next […]

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Bill King of Baseball Reflections posted this piece about some new ideas coming out of the SABR Analytics Conference in Mesa, AZ, March 15-17. John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, will also be there. In 1985, Thorn, along with Pete Palmer, published one of the earlier books on the game’s new generation of metrics in The […]

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The winner of the 2011 CASEY Award will be announced Monday, January 23. Finalists for the coveted literary prize include: The Art of Fielding: A Novel, by Chad Harbach Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball Photographs, […]

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Former JML Shawn Green, Israel Baseball League pitcher Aaron Pribble, and MLB official historian John Thorn will be the featured guests as the Marcus Jewish Community Center book fair on Sunday, Nov. 13. From the press release: Introduction by Stan Kasten, former President of the Atlanta Braves and Thrashers. * The Way of Baseball: Finding […]

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The editors of Spitball released their list of finalists for the 2011 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year: The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game by John Thorn The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball […]

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