John Thorn (1) (1947–)

This is almost fatally overlong and bloated. It seems as if Thorn is trying to put in every little detail of his research, whether it is interesting or not. We don't really need a blow-by-blow account of a baseball game played in 1853 (or whatever) to understand the early history of baseball. The book is also very poorly organized as it seems to keep going around in circles time-wise. Yes, it is very interesting to learn more about Albert Spalding, the great player who fonded the eponymous sporting goods firm, and who had a key role in falsely declaring that Abner Doubleday invented baseball. It was important, you see, that baseball be declared an American game, not something descended from some British precursor like rounders or cricket. But I can just say honestly, what a relief it was when this book was finished! The audiobook version is fairly well read, with a few of the inevitable "audio typos" where I assume the narrator reads a word wrong.… (meer)

Not as good as David Block's Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, but more expansive and with a different focus. It starts with the early strands of baseball in America, it's growth, the spread of the "New York game," and then a foray into explaining how the absurd myth that Abner Doubleday (and/or Alexander Cartwright) created baseball out of whole cloth. Lots of minutiae and lots of early baseball. With some Theosophy thrown in too. Well-researched, nice pictures, good sourcing. Might be a drag for some readers, but important to understand the birth and history of early baseball, especially pre-Civil War.… (meer)

This book offers a fascinating look at the early days of baseball from a man who seems to know everything there is to know about them.
In the course of debunking the tale of Abner Doubleday having anything to do with inventing the game, Thorn also explores the reasons why it was so important to create that myth. In addition to showing that the game had no foreign antecedents, it also served the agenda of influential Theosophists, something I previously had known nothing about.
The title might mislead you if you pick the book up expecting a nostalgic tour of the pristine origin of the sport and a lament about how things would be better if we could just recapture the good old days. No, the serpent was present from the beginning, to continue with the metaphor of Eden.
Even if the game is not pure American in origin, Thorn, in recounting the presence of gamblers, ruffians, racists, and avaricious owners from the very start, did convince me that the game truly is a mirror of the nation, and thus deserves to be called the national pastime.… (meer)