John Thorn Is MLB’s New Official Historian

John Thorn has been appointed Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball, which just might be the smartest thing MLB has done since the invention of the Infield Fly Rule. From the press release:

↵↵Thorn is the author and editor of numerous baseball books, including the forthcoming Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, which will be published on March 15th by Simon & Schuster. His other books include Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Total Baseball encyclopedia series. Thorn, a member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR), was the senior creative consultant for Ken Burns’ Baseball series.

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↵“I have loved baseball all my life,” Thorn said. “I am honored now to serve the game and to help share with fans the joys of digging into baseball’s fascinating history.”

↵↵I’ve known John for many years, but gained a new appreciation of him just recently while we (and the other committee members) deliberated over the many fine candidates for SABR’s Chadwick Award. MLB literally could not have chosen a better man for this job.

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