In 1984, Palmer and Thorn came out with their first book together, The Hidden Game of Baseball, which later statisticians credited with inspiring much of the ensuing statistical revolution by creating sophisticated new ways to measure player performance. In 1989, the duo published Total Baseball, an invaluable book for the pre-internet age that provided exhaustive lists of players’ stats dating back to the 19th century. It was a sensation, giving an untold number of American kids reams of statistical treasure to pore over and memorize. (Total Baseball is one of several dozen books that Thorn has written, edited or anthologized.) By the time Total Baseball appeared, Thorn and colleague Bill James were becoming rock stars in the growing field of sabermetrics—named for the Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR—which relies on quantifiable evidence to determine which players have the most promise (for example, a high on-base percentage) as well as which plays tend to have lower yields (sacrifice bunts). As the New York Times gushed in 1989, “Bill James and John Thorn have popularized, if not revolutionized, the way baseball is viewed and discussed.”
Over the ensuing decades, Thorn continued to quietly reshape how fans, sportswriters and industry insiders observed, interpreted and anticipated baseball in books and talks, also appearing as an expert in Ken Burns’ mammoth 1994 documentary “Baseball.” Then, in 2003, he came upon a most precious piece of buried treasure, the sort he had been seeking since he was a boy: the first known reference to the game called “baseball” being played in the United States.
While researching a book on the origins of the sport, Thorn had chanced upon an 1869 history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, covering the years 1734-1800. The Pittsfield history referred to a 1793 document that mentioned “baseball.” With prodding from the late major league pitcher Jim Bouton, who then lived about 25 miles from Pittsfield, a city librarian and others looked for the document among the town council’s minutes from the 18th century. After ten days of searching, they finally found a vintage bylaw that mentioned baseball, which turned out to be from 1791—and which painted the sport in an unflattering light. The Pittsfield law flagged the young game as a nuisance that needed regulating: banning people from playing baseball (and other ball games) within 80 yards of the new town meeting house, to protect the building’s windows.