At meeting’s end, I met Marjorie Adams, a bright and energetic woman plugging her great-grandfather for the Hall. Many historians think Adams, who created and popularized the shortstop position and headed the 1857 commission that established basic rules like nine men to a side, nine innings to a game, and 90 feet between bases, trumps the largely discredited Alexander Cartwright as the Father of Baseball. In the 2015 election for pre-integration Famers, Adams headed the list with 10 votes. Unfortunately, he needed 12 of the 16 possible votes to qualify. When I looked up his website, I found official baseball historian, John Thorn praising Adams and mourning that the last two pre-integration elections failed to anoint anyone. “It’s like Charlie Brown and Lucy,” he said. “Peanuts” fans know the annual strip in which Lucy holds a football on the ground for Charlie to kick, only to pull it away as he comes sailing past her. The poor kid winds up flat on his back. Adams’ candidacy will get another shot in 2018 [actually moved to 2021, now 2024].

Clearing The Bases – A Veteran Sportswriter On The National Pastime, Jim Kaplan