EL Education Curriculum

John Thorn is the official historian for MLB and has written many books on baseball history. First Pitch is the ideal introduction to the origins of the game for readers of all ages. Crammed with original primary research and newly discovered artifacts, memorabilia, colorful paintings and images, this comprehensive historical work is perhaps most interesting for replacing long-established myths with fact. Thorn himself made some of the key discoveries that have opened up the early history of the game. First Pitch takes readers out to the ballpark to meet heroes old and new, from the two Abners (Abner Doubleday and Abner Graves) to Alexander Cartwright and the Knickerbockers. Thorn won the Bob Davids Award, the highest honor given by the Society for American Baseball Research, and was a senior creative consultant for the Ken Burns’ documentary, Baseball.