The seminal interview of Doc Adams that appeared in the February 29, 1896 Sporting News has surfaced in several places previously. This version, found in the Chicago Chronicle on June 23, 1895, is the earliest we’ve found to date.
Continue reading →In a recent Sport Web article, “The Top 8 Most Expensive Sports Collectibles on the Market” by Theodore Hubbard, Doc Adams’ Laws of Base Ball came in at #5. In 2016, the Laws fetched $3.26 million at auction. Thier greater value is that they provide objective evidence of Doc Adams’ role as a pioneer of the early game and should cement his case for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Continue reading →In the premier issue of Beadle’s Dime Base-Ball Player, Hall of Famer Henry Chadwick, expresses gratitude to his friend, Dr. Adams. Doc was also listed as delegate to the 1860 National Convention representing the Knickerbockers with his teammate, William Grenelle. As is illustrated by Doc’s name appearing in italics, he still continued to support the ‘catch on the fly’ rule. The rule change was proposed to the NABBP annually by Adams but did not pass. It wasn’t finally instituted in 1864. Doc Adams was elected the presiding officer of the first convention in 1857. The second convention was the birth … Continue reading →
In a game that the Knickerbockers won 37-23 vs. the Empires on June 25, 1857, Doc led off and tallied 6 runs.
Continue reading →The following is from the “Biographical and Historical Record of the Class of 1835 in Yale College, for the Fifty Years from the Admission of the Class to College” published in 1881 by Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Printers, 371 State Street, New Haven, CT.
Continue reading →“The League That Failed” (by David Quentin Voigt) cuts through the haze that surrounds 19th-century baseball history, and portrays a classic, colorful era when baseball was chaotic, struggled over by players, coaches, sportswriters, fans, and owners. It recounts the stormy atmosphere after the Inter-League Wars of 1890 and 1891, when the victorious National League made a bald-faced bid to monopolize major league baseball in the United States, succeeding for eight years with the self-styled “Big League,” which dominated the game while simultaneously gaining infamous notoriety for such high-handed acts as unilaterally capping players’ salaries, failing to protect umpires from physical … Continue reading →
What is often referred to as the first recorded game played under the Knickerbocker Rules (now believed to be yet another intrasquad game), took place on June 19, 1846. The Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club (aka “the New York Nine”) 23–1 in four innings. Elysian Fields First Game
Continue reading →On June 15, 1832, Doc Adams received a letter from his 11-year old sister that has become known as the “Bat and Ball letter“. In the letter his sister Nancy sent to him at school, she said, “I have not played with your bat and ball as you bid me. I forget it every morning and indeed I have not seen it since you went away”. It is the earliest known evidence of Doc’s interest in the game.
Continue reading →In his book, “”The Father of Baseball”: A Biography of Henry Chadwick”, Andrew J. Schiff states: “At this particular stage, only one other person, Dr. Daniel “Doc” Adams of the Knickerbockers, may have had more influence. Doc Adams was elected presiding officer of the first convention of baseball players and was credited with many of the game’s early innovations.”
Continue reading →The annual meeting for 1855 was held on the 7th of April. The following officers were elected for the year : A. H. Drummond, President ; E. R. Dupignac, Jr., Vice-President ; Jas. W. Davis, Secretary ; Geo. A. Brown, Treasurer. Directors—D. L. Adams C. S. DeBost, Wm. B. Eager, Jr.
Continue reading →