An Old Baseball Player
An article in the West Haven Courier reports on the death of “an old baseball player”, recounting Henry Chadwick’s letter to the Sporting Life.
Continue reading →Category Archives: 2021
Chadwick Shares A Letter From The Late Dr. Daniel Adams
This article appeared in the Sporting News on the page 5 of the February 4, 1899 edition. In the article, Henry Chadwick shares the last letter he received from ‘his old base ball friend’. Doc reminisces about base ball, from it’s infancy to the ‘modern day’. On the same day, Chadwick’s reminiscences of his late friend and baseball pioneer, Dr. Daniel ‘Doc’ Lucius Adams was published on the front page of The Sporting Life.
Continue reading →Reminiscences of The Late Dr. Daniel Adams
On January 31, 1899, Henry Chadwick wrote to the editor of the Sporting Life with reminiscences of his late friend and baseball pioneer, Dr. Daniel ‘Doc’ Lucius Adams. The letter was published on the front page of the February 4, 1899 edition. On that same day, Doc Adams was also remembered by Mr Chadwick in The Sporting News.
Continue reading →1857 Convention of Base Ball Players (part 3)
The 1857 Convention of Base Ball Players met for the first time on January 22 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. The convention was reported in the January 31, 1857 issue of Porter’s Spirit of the Times. The “Laws of Base Ball” Baseball Chronology
Continue reading →Hoping The Homework Gets Done
Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs makes a great point. Subsequent to the vote, his “Laws of Base Ball” resurfaced and sold for over $3/25 million. This compelling artifact surely establishes that Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams is unequivocally a key Founding Father of baseball. Coming up merely 2 votes short of election in the 2015 Pre-Integration Era Committee balloting, it would seem that this evidence, written in Doc’s own hand, should convince ALL of the members of the Early Baseball Era Committee, that Doc deserves to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. That is assuming the Committee does their homework. … Continue reading →
1857 Convention of Base Ball Players (part 2)
The Convention met together shortly after the hour appointed, and being satisfied with each other’s personal appearance, (justly so, for most of them were splendid looking fellows) the delegates proceeded to elect a President and officers, when the following were appointed:President – Dr. D.L. Adams, of the Knickerbockers It is hoped that in December 2020, Doc Adams will again be elected. This time as a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame with induction in 2021.
Continue reading →Rewriting History
Andrew Forbes, the author of The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays recently released an updated version with a “minor” correction. ” if you were to open both of those hypothetical copies of the book to the essay entitled “Madison Bumgarner and the Beautiful Lie,” and more specifically to pages 50 and 51, you would find that I, with the full backing of Team Invisible, have made a minor change to the text. “… … “More recent scholarship, though, has clarified things, and ousted Cartwright from the founder’s role. Most notably, the excellent John Thorn – who, as the Official Historian … Continue reading →
1857 Convention of Base Ball Players (part 1)
The 1857 Convention of Base Ball Players met for the first time on January 22 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 the previous … Continue reading →
New York Infirmary and Vaccine Physician NYC
Doc Adams Passed Away 122 Years Ago
January 3, 1899, Doc Adams passed away at the age of 85 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut. In his years playing base ball (1845-1862) in New York City with the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club), he created and developed the shortstop position (1849/50), made all the balls and supervised the manufacture of all the bats. In 1857, in his ‘Laws of Base Ball’, he set the bases at 90 feet, and proposed nine innings/nine players per side and more. You can find more of Doc’s obituaries here.
Continue reading →