Book excerpt: John Thorn, America's foremost baseball historian -- named in March 2011 as the Official Historian for Major League Baseball® -- creates the first book for kids on how America's National Pastime was born. The story takes readers back in history to meet the men who gathered ideas from older games to create a uniquely American sport that has defined a century. Thorn himself made some of the key discoveries that have opened up the early history of the game to the light of truth. Using colourful artefacts and memorabilia, the book takes readers out to the ballpark to meet heroes old and new.