Yearly Archives: 2024

Marjorie Adams on Baseball and BBQ Podcast

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On March 8, 2021, Marjorie Adams appeared on the Baseball and BBQ podcast to discuss her great-grandfather and baseball pioneer, Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams, MD, with Leonard Aberman, Jeff Cohen, and special guest Jeff ‘Pinetar’ Kornhaas. The podcast can be heard here: Baseball and BBQ Episode #87: Marjorie Adams, Baseball Royalty, Steve Ray from Owls Nest BBQ and Gary Looney from Angels Spring Training Camp. The group discusses Doc Adams’ life, his contributions to the game of baseball, and the hopes of having him inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. It is a very engaging and … Continue reading →

Remembering The First Baseball Convention

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On March 7, 2023, Fox News recalled 166th anniversary of the first national convention of base ball players. In the article, “On this day in history, March 7, 1857, baseball adopts nine players, nine innings as standard of competition“, The article does, albeit briefly, mention Doc Adams: The forgotten titan of the game is Cartwright’s fellow Knickerbocker Daniel “Doc” Adams, say baseball historians. “Considered by some to be the true ‘Father of Baseball,’ ‘Doc’ Adams was elected president of the first Base Ball Convention in 1857,” Miklich writes. “On this day in history, March 7, 1857, baseball adopts nine players, nine … Continue reading →

Efforts Ramp Up To Get CT Baseball Legend Into Hall Of Fame

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In his March 6, 2015 Connecticut Magazine article, “Efforts Ramp Up to Get CT Baseball Legend Into Hall of Fame”, Eric Olgang detailed the beginning of Marjorie Adams’ quest. The 1858 New York Knickerbockers and Brooklyn Excelsiors It wasn’t the pitch she was expecting. A few years ago, Marjorie Adams of Mystic attended a lecture in Simsbury on the pre-Civil War history of baseball when the speaker, Gary Goldberg-O’Maxfield threw the baseball history equivalent of a curveball—he discussed Doc Adams, and hailed him as a forgotten founding father of America’s pastime. Adams is Marjorie’s great grandfather and she was shocked … Continue reading →

First Convention of Base Ball Players

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“At the close of 1856 there were 12 clubs in existence, and it was decided to hold a convention of delegates from all of these for the purpose of establishing a permanent code of rules by which all should be governed … the result was the assembling of the first convention of base ball players in May 1857. I was elected presiding officer,” Adams said. “In March of the next year the second convention was held, and at this meeting the annual convention was declared a permanent organization, and with the requisite constitution and bylaws became the National Association of … Continue reading →

Memoirs Of The Father Of Base Ball

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On February 29, 1896, the Sporting News published an article on Dr. D. L. Adams sub-titled ‘Memoirs of the Father of Base Ball’. The article is based on an interview of Doc and details his contributions to the nascent National Pastime. In a pleasant home on quiet Edwards street, lives Dr. Daniel L. Adams, who undoubtedly, more than any other man in the country, is entitled to be called the Father of Base Ball. His brother-in-law, William S. Briggs of Keene, N.H., makes this claim for him, and the facts bear it out. Dr. Adams was born in Mt. Vernon, … Continue reading →

Doc Appointed Delegate To The 1st Convention Of Base Ball Clubs

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At a meeting held February 27, 1858, Messrs. D. L. Adams and W. H. Grenelle were appointed delegates to the first convention of Base Ball Clubs, to be held on the 10th of March. The first meeting of the Convention was held on the 10th of March, 1858, and the following clubs represented by two delegates each : Knickerbocker, Gotham, Eagle, Empire, Putnam, Baltic, Excelsior, Atlantic, Harlem, Eckford, Continental, Union, Metropolitan, Columbian, Osceola, Oriental, Stuyvesant, Hamilton, Pastime, Liberty (of New Brunswick), Monument, Amity, St Nicholas, Nassau, and Mutual. A resolution was adopted declaring the Convention a permanent organization, and a … Continue reading →

Stay Home With SABR: Marjorie Adams And Corky Gaskell On Baseball Pioneer Doc Adams

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SABR‘s Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter conducted a virtual meeting on Thursday, February 25, 2021. The topic was “Doc Adams’s Role in Early Baseball” with Corky Gaskell and Marjorie Adams. Check out the presentation. To learn more, visit SABR.

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Rules Adopted!

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The 1857 Convention of Base Ball Players met for the second and final time on February 25 at Smith’s Hotel, the headquarters of the Knickerbocker Club, with the following clubs represented: Knickerbocker, Gotham, Eagle, Empire, Putnam, Baltic, Excelsior, Atlantic, Harmony, Harlem, Eckford, Bedford, Narrau, and Continental. The clubs elected Daniel Adams of the Knickerbockers as president of the convention and then appointed a rules committee, made up of one member of each represented club. This was perhaps the most important meeting in the history of baseball. It was a meeting of the baseball clubs of New York City, and unlike … Continue reading →

Base Ball Arithmetic

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Doc’s father, Daniel Adams MD (1773-1864) was born in Townsend, Massachusetts and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1797 and from the second class of Dartmouth Medical School in 1799. As well as being a practicing physician, he also authored widely used arithmetic and geography textbooks (the former was in use from 1801 to c.1864). In the measurement section of his Arithmetic book, question # 11 (below) is of particular interest. Someone who would have no difficulty solving that problem was his son, Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams. Doc Adams started playing base ball in 1839. He played for … Continue reading →