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, when 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”.
Continue reading →ON THIS DATE: (June 5th) IN 1846: Doc Adams was appointed to a committee with teammates, Duncan Curry and William Tucker to arrange a game with the New York Base Ball Club. That game would take place two weeks later. IN 1855: The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club played the Eagle Base Ball Club in Hoboken, NJ. It lasted four innings.Final score: KBBC 27 aces, Eagles 14 aces. Doc Adams made 3 runs (aces) and 3 hands (outs).
Continue reading →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.” William Cauldwell, the editor of the newspaper, predicted … Continue reading →
Anticipation and excitement continues to grow for the display of Doc Adams’ handwritten ‘Laws of Base Ball’ at the library of Congress in time for the All-Star game to be hosted by Washington. It will be on public display for only the second time since changed the course of baseball in 1857. The ‘Laws of Base Ball” authored by Doc Adams will be the centerpiece of a Major Exhibition on the Game coming to the Library of Congress. The year-long exhibition will open on June 29. The exhibition will explore baseball’s past and present and how the game has forged a sense … Continue reading →
The ‘Laws of Base Ball” authored by Doc Adams will be the centerpiece of a Major Exhibition on the Game coming to the Library of Congress. The year-long exhibition will open on June 29. The exhibition will explore baseball’s past and present and how the game has forged a sense of community for players and fans across the country. “The founding documents of baseball that would shape the modern game as our national pastime were ironed out in January and February 1857 at a convention called by the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in New York City. Corrections were made by hand as … Continue reading →
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 →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 →
April 7, 1849, Doc Adams was elected to his third term as President of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in New York City. The Club’s meeting was held at Abell’s, 474 Broadway.
Continue reading →Doc Adams became president of the Knickerbockers for the fourth time, winning an election held at the club’s April 5, 1856, meeting.
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