American History Through American Sports
Coombs and Batchelor write about Doc Adams in their book, “American History Through American Sports: From Colonial Lacrosse to Extreme Sports, Volume 1”, referencing the work of John Thorn.
Continue reading →Category Archives: 2020
Yale and Harvard
In 1830, Doc enrolled in Amherst College. In 1833, he transferred to Yale College from which he graduated in 1835. Later that year, Doc entered Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1838. It was at Harvard that Doc made the acquaintance of Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.) where they roomed at the same boarding house. “Having nothing to do at Commencement, it will be a considerable saving of both time and money not to attend” . June 29, 1835
Continue reading →Doc Marries Cornelia
Daniel Lucius Adams and Cornelia Cook married on May 7, 1861, and remained together until Adams’ death. The couple had five children; the first, a son named Charles, died less than a month after his birth in 1864. The others, two sons (Frank and Roger) and two daughters (Catharine and Mary), were born between 1866 and 1874. “My marriage was the crowning achievement of my life.” – Daniel Lucius Adams, MD Biographical & Historical Record of the Class of 1835 in Yale College (1881)
Continue reading →Doc Adams Elected Knickerbockers’ Vice-President
The Knickerbockers held elections annually to determine who would serve as officials. At the club’s second election, held on May 5, 1846, Adams was named the Knickerbockers’ vice president. At an April 1847 meeting, he became the president of the team, and was re-elected in 1848 and 1849. He was the leader of a “Committee to Revive the Constitution and By-Laws” of baseball in 1848.
Continue reading →If Only, …
An article on the “Origin of Base Ball” appeared on May 4, 1905, in the Long Beach Evening Tribune. The right questions were being asked back then; however, it wasn’t as easy to find the answers. Had the information available today been accessible, Doc Adams would probably already be in the Hall of Fame. It’s not too late. Read the full article here.
Continue reading →All Physicians Team
I recently stumbled across this article in Reddit and found it interesting. In honor of our hard-working doctors keeping us safe during this pandemic, it lists an All-Physician Team! Actually, it lists 40 players who earned a real medical degree, either before, during, or after their baseball careers. It includes some that are very familiar, more recent players such as Dr. Ron Taylor of the 1969 Miracle Mets, and Dr. Bobby Brown (3B) and Doc Medich (P), both former Yankees. It also includes the likes of Right Fielder Moonlight Graham (Dr. Archibald Graham), made famous in ‘The Field of Dreams’. … Continue reading →
2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Cancelled
Jay Jaffee discusses the cancellation of the 2020 National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction in a FanGraphs article “The Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 Will Have to Wait a Year .for Induction Weekend“. Jaffe alludes to the cancellation of the 2020 Induction possibly setting up a very interesting scenario next year in Cooperstown. Doc Adams should appear on the Early Baseball ballot this December and will hopefully be elected for induction as part of the class of 2021. If he is elected, the first shortstop and inventor of the position, would be a ‘classmate’ of the latest shortstop to … Continue reading →
Knickerbocker BBC Adopts 1st Uniform
The fifth annual meeting was held at Abell’s, 474 Broadway, on the 7th of April, 1849. The officers elected for the year, were : D. L. Adams, President ; Ed. W. Talman, Vice-President; Eugene Plunkett, Secretary; F. C. Niebuhr, Treasurer. Directors—E. E. Dupignac, A. H. Drummond, B. C. Lee. At a meeting held April 24, 1849, a uniform was adopted for the club, viz. blue woolen pantaloons, white flannel shirt, chip (straw) hats ; and it may here be mentioned that the blue and white has ever since remained the costume of the club. The straw hats were abolished some … Continue reading →
“Laws Of Base Ball” Sell For $3,263,246
On April 24, 2016, the last hours of the auction for the “Laws of Base Ball” authored by Doc Adams lived up to its billing and did not disappoint as the closing bid came in at $3,263,246 setting a new record for the highest priced baseball document. “Adams’s hand in the sport’s early rule-making is not a revelation; instead, it is the physical record of his central role memorialized in the three surviving pages of his document.” This compelling artifact surely establishes that Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams is unequivocally a key Founding Father of baseball and deserves to be enshrined … Continue reading →
Jay Jaffe (Fan Graphs) Expresses Support
Jay Jaffe of Fan Graphs recently expressed his support (again) for the induction of Doc Adams into the National Hall of Fame. He also made a good point back in January. Here’s some thoughts from Jay Jaffe in Sports Illustrated back in December 2015: Doc Adams, pioneer Roll over, Abner Doubleday, and tell Alexander Cartwright the news. No less an authority than MLB official historian John Thorn called Daniel Lucius Adams “first among the Fathers of Baseball” in a 1993 essay for Total Baseball and “the most significant figure in the early history of baseball” in his 2011 book Baseball … Continue reading →