John Thorn

Tetradrachm, Athens, 480-420BC: The Owl of Athena, or SuperbOwl ... tip your waiter!

History Awakens: February 2, 1876 and the Founding of the National League An Amazing New Discovery

On this day, 150 years ago, MLB began. ourgame.mlblogs.com/history-awak...

PIONEERS: William Edward White First in a season-long series

Who was MLB's first Black player? Not Jackie Robinson in 1947, not Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Weldy in 1884 … but William Edward White, in 1879. He passed for white for much of his life but, uniquely among MLB players, he was born a slave. ourgame.mlblogs.com/pioneers-wil...

A Pictorial Retrospective of Baseball: Part 6, the 1850s A new series that goes back, back, back

When did baseball begin? 1833? 1845? 1857? ourgame.mlblogs.com/a-pictorial-...

Negro Leagues Stats and MLB's Official Record In 2024, MLB included Negro League statistics within its official record. Larry Lester and John Thorn, who were deeply involved in the process, will tell us how those stats came to...

Larry Lester and I will offer, on February 26 with New York State Library support, a zoom session on how Negro Leagues stats from 1920-1948 found their way into MLB's official record. nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16236463

YouTube video by Silver Screen Classics A Documentary On Louise Brooks

Took an hour off from scribbling about baseball in the 1850s to watch this 1986 documentary about Louise Brooks. Marvelous. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCsv...

I may know the dude at the right: George William Curtis, who in 1863 became the political editor of Harper's Weekly, where he stayed until 1871. Nast of course brought down Tweed in that publication.

Whoops, there is this, by Nast, from 1892: The Landing Of Columbus, a satire print on the 400th anniversary of a bogus event.

I think that ascription is incorrrect. Nast's only work on Columbus may be: NAST: BENNETT, 1879. 'Root, hog, or die - Christopher Columbus Bennett has discovered the true indian policy.' Caricature of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Cartoon by Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly, 1879.

2/2 A horrified Tammany Indian looks on. The goateed figure is, I believe, Nast himself; the cigar-smoking dude is not known to me. Tweed's stance is that of Longfellow's Excelsior lad but the model for the orb in his hand may be Constantine the Great, atop the Capitoline Hill, looking out at Rome.

1/2 Snagged this at auction today: a pen-and-ink by Thomas Nast that that I have not seen reproduced. It depicts Boss Tweed with the world in his hands, but the globe is depicted as a four-panel baseball. Tweed of course controlled the Mutual Base Ball Club of New York.

(We see George in full figure, wearing his home white uniform and white cap, with “BOSTON” in red across his check. He also wears red socks and a red belt. He’s in a studio setting with a Brady stand behind him, as well as a muslin tarp. A white baseball sits in front of him.)

On this day in 1847, George Wright was born in the Yorkville (Harlem) section of New York City. The best player in the game during his era, he revolutionized the shortstop position with his infield play. Here’s an in-progress painting (but almost there) of him with the Boston Red Stockings in 1871.

2/2 and for which she designed a celebrated poster. Both are depicted below. The cover of the June issue depicts the artist, as is common of so many of her works. That story: ourgame.mlblogs.com/poster-girl-....

1/2 Twenty years ago I wrote a story about Ethel Reed, the "poster girl" of the 1890s, linked below. Today it has dawned upon me that she may be responsible for at least one unsigned cover for The Penny Magazine of Philadelphia, which ran to only nine issues in 1896 ...

Three.

At this moment I am not at liberty to say more. It is a carte de visite.

A new photo has emerged, moments ago, of Jim Creighton ... the first in 160 years. It is only a snapshot but its provenance is impeccable (you'll have to trust me).

The image above was a column header in The New-York Sporting Whip of March 4, 1843.

Race walking, or pedestrianism, was a big sport in the days before baseball was organized.

Before Madison Square Garden thought to present basketball or hockey, it was known as Gilmore's Garden and hosted a walking race, in 1879.

Another of “The Greatest Plays You Never Saw” Reggie Smith, unseen but remembered by David Lawrence Reed

From the 1860s to the 1960s, at Our Game. Remember this catch, by Reggie Smith? ourgame.mlblogs.com/another-of-t...

I stand corrected, Scott!

You’ve forgotten Mike Herrera, who started in the Negro Leagues, went to the American League (Red Sox), then went BACK to the Negro Leagues!

These two links represent spectacular research. Negro Leagues teams were not alone in playing games against outsiders among scheduled league contests. retrosheet.org/InSeasonExhi... and retrosheet.org/InSeasonExhi...

Only two men began in the Negro Leagues, THEN played in MLB before Jackie Robinson's Dodger debut in 1947: Oscar Estrada pitched for the Cuban Stars East (ECL) in 1924, then for the Browns (AL) in 1929; Pedro Dibut pitched for the Cuban Stars West (NNL) in 1923, then for the Reds (NL) 1924-25.

A Pictorial Retrospective of Baseball: Part 6, 1860 A new series that goes back, back, back

This week's story is about Jim Creighton, and the feud between the Atlantics and the Excelsiors. ourgame.mlblogs.com/a-pictorial-...

Wow.

142 was his long-standing mark, published in the 1981 book. But 141 became the corrected figure after Maris lost an RBI on a GIDP.

Beats me! Ball-strike counts were not part of play-by-plays, even in 1902, so this account must have derived from a reporter's story.

The Greatest Game Ever Played? No, not Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, though in the heat of battle and the immediate glow of victory, some were quick to call it that…

I think I may have to revisit my 45-year-old list of baseball's ten greatest games to include not only the 2016 finale (I was there), but also Game 7 last year (I wish I had been present). ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-greatest...