A baseball book with a commanding presence

While baseball was an integral part of J.D. Thorne's life before he attended Prospect High School, the bond was certainly secured when he became the captain and MVP of a team that included future major leaguers Tom Lundstedt and Dave Kingman.

By the time he graduated in 1966, J.D. held most of the team's hitting records, and his brother Mark held most of the pitching records (Mark's ERA of 0.51 with 93 strikeouts in 63 innings still stands today).

Today, after spending most of his adult life as an attorney with expertise in management labor relations and employment law, the game has drawn him back. He is the author of "The Ten Commandments of Baseball," a book that has found its way into the National Baseball Hall of Fame's museum shop and into the hearts of anyone looking for a little motivation in life through the lessons learned on ball fields everywhere.

The book's subtitle is "An Affectionate Look at Joe McCarty's Principles for Success in Baseball (and Life)", and Thorne certainly delivers on that message as he offers up homespun stories and plenty of common sense to illustrate each commandment from No. 1 (Nobody ever became a ballplayer by walking after a ball) to No. 10 (A pitcher who hasn't control, hasn't anything).

In this interview, Thorne explains his love for the game and his mission with the book. For a more extensive interview, visit dailyherald.com/sports.

Q: The "Ten Commandments of Baseball" list has been around since the 1900s and was made famous by Joe McCarthy in 1949. Do you remember when you first heard or read them?

A: I first discovered the existence of Joe McCarthy's "10 Commandments of Baseball" when I was shown them by my brother Mark, a high school coach for 34 years at Forest View and Rolling Meadows before retiring a few years ago. We were going through our father's things after he passed away in 2003. They were printed on a keepsake card my father had kept in his top dresser drawer in his bedroom. It was from a baseball-themed restaurant in the Iowa Amana Colonies. We calculated our parents had traveled there in about 1975, so my father had put the card where he could see it every day for over 25 years!

Q: What did you learn about the origin of these commandments and Joe McCarthy?

A. I learned that he had earned the highest winning percentage of any major league manager ever in MLB over a 24 year Hall of Fame career, winning 7 World Series Championships, a record equaled only by Casey Stengel. I then inquired with the HOF as to their origin, and I was referred to a Web site stating they first appeared in publication 1949 in the Boston Herald, but that the HOF did not have a copy of it.

I happened to be in Boston in little while after that, so I went to the Boston Public Library and researched in the archives. I found it in an issue of the paper dated April 16, 1949.

Accordingly to the article, McCarthy had first composed the rules in 1921 as a minor league manager with the Louisville Colonels after winning the "Little World Series" that year. This was later confirmed by author Alan Levy in his 2005 book, "Joe McCarthy, Architect of the Yankee Dynasty." The HOF now has a copy of it.

Q: What kind of reaction are you getting with your book?

A: People tell me it is both entertaining as a baseball book and thought-provoking as a motivator for achievement. People from high school students to the older generations who actually remember Joe McCarthy have told me how much they enjoyed reading the book.

Everyone in America understands baseball and its basic rules of play. Likewise everyone can translate what Joe McCarthy was trying to convey when he composed these rules for baseball success years ago before the advent of radio, let alone TV or the Internet.

The basic principles for success whether in baseball, or in life, do not change from age to age. While there may be other lists of "rules" that are as good or better, these work well enough for me.

Q: Which of the baseball commandments has the most meaning to you, and why?

A: Probably No. 6: Don't alibi on bad hops; Anybody can field the easy ones." To me this means: "Learn to do the difficult."

For some reason people have a tendency to shy away from the real-life tough challenges they may face at times. But it is when facing them head-on that real progress is made in one's personal or professional life.

Q: Tell us about your baseball roots and some of the people you've encountered through the game.

A: My own baseball roots are deep. Both my grandfathers played baseball at a high amateur or "semipro" level. My father played and managed on city of Chicago championship church league teams in the 1930s. My brother played on the Bradley University team, and I lettered at the University of Wisconsin. Although I played amateur baseball after college for many years, some of the people I played with or against went on to major league careers, such as Dave Kingman, Tom Lundstedt, Paul Splittorf, Greg Luzinski, and Steve Garvey. Mark Newman, who played at Wheeling High School and for the great teams of Lloyd Meyer for the Arlington Heights American Legion, went into college coaching and is now vice president of Baseball Operations for the New York Yankees, a position he has held for many years.

Q: Is there a lot of Chicago and the Northwest suburbs in this book?

A: I have included stories about the Cubs that father told us about being present as a 16-year old at the 1929 World Series, and at age 19 for 1932 World Series game when Babe Ruth pointed. I also included a fun story from playing 16-inch softball at Meadows Park in Mount Prospect.

Q: Why is the game of baseball so important to you?

A: Baseball is so important to me because it has been such an integral part of my life as a player and a fan and as a person. It became very fun when I could put together my vocation as a speaker and writer and my avocation as baseball enthusiast in giving the presentation on it and later writing the book.

Q: Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire may have trouble getting into the Hall of Fame, but a piece of you has already made it with this book. How did that come about?

A: I developed strong relationships with individuals at the HOF while researching the book. This is what may account for it being accepted for sale in the HOF museum store when the book was published in January. They were somewhat familiar with its concept already. Before Jason Shiellack, started working at the HOF as director of development, he had worked with my eldest son in Milwaukee. When the idea for the book came along, my son referred me to Jason. He was very helpful in steering me in the right direction.

Q: With the recent troubles by Alex Rodriguez coming to light, are you getting a stronger response with your book. Does you book take on new meaning?

A: I do not feel there is a stronger response to the book because of the Alex Rodriguez situation. In fact, I deliberately did not mention the steroid issue in the book. It might have fit in under Commandment No. 10, which is translated to me as "self-control." The book probably takes on new meaning because of it, tough.

It is part of the reason I put in the story of 1919 White Sox shortstop Buck Weaver. He was never accused of taking any money from the gamblers, but he remains suspended from baseball still because he knew about the scheme and said nothing. . Watching who we associate with is just as important as doing the right thing.

I used the story of Rabbit Maranville, who lost his job with Cubs as manager just before McCarthy in part because of his hard-drinking habits, a real challenge to many players in those days.

Q: Can you give us another example of how you tell a story related to a commandment?

A: I first used examples from my own playing experiences to illustrate the principles for success. For example, Commandment No. 8 is, "Do not quit." I remember a Mount Prospect Pony League all-star game in which I played when a pitcher was throwing a perfect game against us for 6 2/3 innings and some of the players on the bench started putting away the equipment before the last out. When the coach told us that was "bad luck," it stopped. Sure enough, the next hitter walked, the hitter after that singled, and the next hitter blasted a home run to give us a 3-2 victory.

Later I looked for and found MLB stories to fill out the narrative. For example, Commandment No. 1 is, "No one ever became a ballplayer by walking after a ball." I remembered the epitome of hustle in the 1940s was Enos Slaughter. When researching his career, I learned that one of the reasons he hustled so much was that in the minor leagues in the 1930s he was once criticized by his manager for loafing on a play. From that moment he made a vow to never have that happen again, a vow he surely kept until hustling was a habit with him. Then I read that before the World Series game in which he made his mad dash from first base to score on a single when Boston shortstop John Pesky hesitated before throwing home, he was told by the team physician that his arm was so badly injured that if he hurt it further it might have to be amputated. I was amazed. It was reported he said in reply to that diagnosis words to the effect, "Well Doc, I guess that is a chance I will just have to take."

That background really put context to the mad dash home by Enos Slaughter for me, and I felt that many fans probably were not aware of it either any more.

Q: If you could give Commissioner Bud Selig any advice, what would you say?

A: My advice for Commissioner Selig is to keep doing what he is doing. Baseball has never been more popular. - Despite his many naysayers, in my opinion Commissioner Selig is the best commissioner the game has had. It was a lot easier for Judge Landis when there was no union to contend with and he enjoyed unilateral power and control to make things happen.

Q: If you could have a handful of original baseball cards (and money wasn't important), which players would you want? And do you still have your baseball card collection?

A: I enjoy reading about Hack Wilson, and his great all-time single season RBI record. If I could have only one baseball card, that would be it. My mother threw out my card collection along the way as it was gathering dust in the closet and lay untended for many years. I played a table baseball game with dice called APBA Baseball. I still have a nice collection of those cards from seasons about 1957 to 1964, plus "old time" great teams I bought along the way.

Q: Fess up. Cubs fan or Sox fan? Lou or Ozzie? Who gets your HOF vote from the steroids era, and who doesn't?

A: I am a third-generation Cubs fan (possibly fourth generation being from a Swedish family that lived near Humboldt Park on Chicago's West Side). I cheer for the White Sox, too, when they are winning. I can remember listening to night games with White Sox announcer Bob Elson describing "White Owl wallops" off the bat of Ted Kluzewski and pitching gems by Billy Pierce and "Tricky Dick" Donovan in 1959. Living in Milwaukee now, I follow the Brewers more closely than the Cubs, cheering for the Brewers when the two teams play.

Q: Rank your favorite baseball movies or books for us?

A: Ranking my favorite baseball movies is an intriguing question. Thank you for asking it. I generally enjoy most baseball movies for what they are worth. I remember growing up watching Comedian Joe E. Brown star in the old classic, "Alibi Ike," and watching "It Happens Every Spring". Even with all the cable channels I do not see those two being shown too much any more on TV. I like the feelings I have watching "Field of Dreams", and I find it is a fun, entertaining movie. However, it is at heart not really a "baseball movie," in my opinion, but rather a "fantasy" movie that could also be subtitled, "Only in your wildest dreams does this action take place." It did a lot for baseball however at a time when baseball needed it.

But it is not my favorite baseball movie. It is also not Robert Redford's beautifully photographed "The Natural". Although the game scenes are generally well done and some of the characters are interesting (like the manager), the plot itself is more like the movie should be called, "The Unnatural."

Many people also like "Bull Durham" because they feel it is an excellent portrayal or depiction of what life may be like for a player in the minor leagues. However, in my opinion, the movie is more of a sex movie than a baseball movie, and only uses baseball to the extent it provides a background for it. In Milwaukee we enjoy watching "Major League" because it used old Milwaukee County Stadium for its stadium scenes, but when only the terrific performance of Bob Uecker as the team announcer, playing himself, saves the movie as a dramatic piece, I just can't go with it either.

"The Babe Ruth Story" with excellent character actor William Bendix and "The Pride of The Yankees" with the great Gary Cooper portraying the shy Low Gehrig are just simply scripts filled with sappy Hollywood contrivances. I can't vote for those either. Jimmy Stewart is pretty good in the movie about the one armed player, but it still does not quite ring the bell for me.

In my opinion, the best baseball movie and my personal favorite is a lesser known movie, "Bang the Drum Slowly". Based on a true situation, it is both baseball and drama. Second place would probably have to go to "Eight Men Out".

I think my favorite baseball book is "Veeck as in Wreck" by Bill Veeck Jr. I can still vividly remember the scene he described in it when in about 1925, as a 12-year-old boy hanging around the Cub clubhouse as the son of the Cubs general manager at the time, former newspaper man William Veeck, the great Grover Cleveland Alexander took him on a spree to Riverview Park. When they came to dunking cage, one of the black men insulted Alexander so badly that he bought $20 worth of baseballs and almost drowned the man in the dunk tank of the cage.