Baseball: Our Game

by John Thorn

John Thorn, one of baseball's foremost experts and a creator of "Total The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball", offers a loving mini-history of the American game.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

54 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

John Thorn has been the official historian for Major League Baseball since 2011.

Reviews

[carl theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read to start the 2011 baseball season. This essay
puts the game into perspective, that is, enduring changes in
life and society, baseball stays the same.

Every generation views the old game as better when they
were young, that is the primary consistency! Thorn
gives an overall view of the game and then devotes a few
pages to each of the decades, '50s, 60s, 70s, 80-90s and stops
in 1995 as that is the original publication date.

Do things change? from a poem in the book by HC Dodge

'Oh give us the glorious matches of old, when love of
true sport made them great,
And not this new-fashioned affair always sold for the
boodle they take at the gate.'

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short essay in the history of baseball in light of defining it quintessential American game. The author clearly loves the game and seems to know the basic history and evolution from cricket and rounders, but I found the lack of interest in details like the barring of African Americans in the early years (yes, baseball had to be reintegrated ) and also how the regulation of little league included barring girls from playing means that the representation of baseball as the best face of America is too false to satisfy.

[Carlo Hagemann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the title of this book promises some ‘feeling’ the book is a mere series of facts. Yes, there is a historical line. Yes there is context, but what is lacking for me are the stories, the epic legends.