Category Archives: 2024

The Fly Game: Knickerbockers Vs. The Excelsiors

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In the May 29, 1859 issue of The Sunday Mercury, a weekly New York newspaper that extensively covered the expanding world of base ball playing, an untitled paragraph announced the possibility of a forthcoming game that would be strikingly different from all others played during the past few years: “We have heard it rumored — we do not know with what truth — that the Knickerbocker Club, of this city, will shortly play a match with the Excelsior Club, of Brooklyn, in which they will repudiate catching the ball upon the bound.” The Sunday Mercury William Cauldwell, the editor of … Continue reading →

If I Had A Vote – Jay Jaffe

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Prior to the Pre-Integration Era ballot in 2015, Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs expressed his opinion on Doc Adams’ candidacy in his article “Breaking down the Hall of Fame’s Pre-Integration Era ballot, Part 1” in Sports Illustrated. Below is an extract from that article. 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 in … Continue reading →

Doc’s Parents

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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 was a farmer, an author of widely used arithmetic and geography textbooks (the former was in use from 1801 to c.1864), a deacon of his Congregational church, choir master, a member of the New Hampshire Legislature, president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and an early and frequent orator in support of temperance and abolition. In 1800, he married Nancy … Continue reading →

John Thorn’s Five Inventors

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John Thorn, Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball, asks the questions “Who Is Baseball’s Edison? Its Leonardo?” in his Our Game post “5 Inventors”. We are particularly interested in his thoughts on Doc Adams. As usual, an excellent read – take the time to read the whole article.

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Doc Musings

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“He’s the true father of baseball and you’ve never heard of him.” John Thorn, Official Historian of MLB “Well you know Doc saved baseball.” Fred Ivor Campbell, noted baseball historian and author “Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection.” Red Smith, sportswriter “I indulge the hope that the ‘spirit’ you express of being with us always, may be accompanied by the body on the old Play Grounds. Playing commences on the 21st. James Whyte Davis, baseball pioneer, Knickerbocker Base Ball Club “Resolved, that to him as much if not … Continue reading →

‘Memories And Dreams’ Recognizes Doc Adams

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Memories and Dreams is the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s bi-monthly magazine. It includes in-depth profiles of Hall of Famers and regular features on the historic artifacts, photographs and documents that comprise the Museum’s unparalleled collection. The magazine also features behind-the-scenes stories of the unforgettable legends and moments from the National Pastime. Featuring some of the most respected baseball writers in the world, participants in the Museum’s Membership program receive Memories and Dreams six times a year. In the article, “In Position”, in the Opening Day 2021 issue, Scott Pitoniak, described how the games 10 primary positions (yes, including the … Continue reading →

Bruce Allardice: “Doc Adams Should Be In The Hall Of Fame”

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MLB’s Historian John Thorn has called him “The True Father of Baseball.” He was largely responsible for the innovations that created the “New York game” of baseball, such as a 9-player game, setting the basepath length at 90 feet, and inventing the position of shortstop. These innovations set the New York game apart from the various bat-and-ball games that were common at the time. He was chairman of the first convention of baseball players, in May 1857. At the convention the following year, he chaired the vital Committee on Rules and Regulations. He prepared and presented a first draft of … Continue reading →

It Must Be True, It’s In The Encyclopedia Britannica

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In answer to the question, “who really invented baseball?“ Some semblance of what baseball would become can be traced to 1800s New York as groups of men started crafting their own sets of rules. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York gets the credit for the first true effort, with a group of men on the rules committee outlining a 20-rule parameter, dubbed the Knickerbocker Rules, which set foul lines, the paces between bases, the limit of three outs, and, (in a safety-first mentality, no doubt) eliminated the dodgeball-style rule that to get a runner out you could hit … Continue reading →

The Physician As A Sportsman

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The November 16, 1956 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association, contained Allan J. Ryan, M.D.’s article “The Physician as a Sportsman” which referenced the good doctor. D. L. Adams and James R. Purdy were members of the old Knickerbocker Baseball (sic) Club in New York, one of the last strongholds of the amateur game. “The Physician as a Sportsman”, The Journal of the American Medical Association (Nov 17, 1956), Allan J. Ryan, M.D.

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The Daniel “Doc” Adams Affair

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An interesting, somewhat provocative article was published on Ethics Alarms in 2021. The following excerpt highlights Marjorie’s efforts: This fiasco of historical incompetence and bias is highlighted today because it was announced that Marjorie Adams, the great-granddaughter of Daniel “Doc” Adams, died earlier this month. She had been laboring for years to get “Doc”—yes, he was a real M.D.— the recognition he deserved and to see him finally inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. She lobbied for him on a website, at conferences, at meetings of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and at vintage baseball … Continue reading →