Three amendments to the rules were proposed and received by Dr. Jones (Excelsior), the chairman of the Rules Committee; however, because the committee did not present these to the convention committee prior to the 1862 meeting, no changes to the playing rules could officially be made. Two events had resulted in the Rules Committee being unable to forward its recommended changes before the convention. In March of 1862, Dr. Adams (Knickerbocker) resigned from the Knickerbocker Club as well as the Rules Committee, married, and moved to Connecticut. Judge William Van Cott (Gotham) traveled to Centerville, Virginia, in the middle of November to be with his 18-year-old son, Leonard, who had contracted typhoid fever 2½ months after enlisting in the 119th New York Regiment. Leonard died on December 3.14 Both Adams and Van Cott were important to the growth of baseball during its infancy.

Daniel “Doc” Adams joined the Knickerbockers in October of 1845, one month after they officially formed, and quickly became respected not only with the Knickerbockers, but with the baseball-playing community. He was elected vice president of the Knickerbockers seven months after joining. On June 5, 1846, he and two others were appointed to organize a match with the New York Base Ball Club.15 Adams was elected president of the Knickerbockers in April of 1847 and re-elected in 1848 and 1849. He is credited, initially by his own admission, with creating the position of shortstop. He recalled that he did not position himself there to plug a hole in the infield but to aid the outfield in getting the ball back into the infield. Adams made the baseballs that the Knicks used in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

On November 19, 1853, Adams, Duncan Curry, and William Tucker were appointed to codify a set of playing rules at the invitation of the Eagle Club.16 Adams was a director of the Knickerbockers in 1854 and 1855 and returned as the elected president in 1856 and 1857. At a Knickerbocker meeting in 1856, Adams and Louis F. Wadsworth proposed that nonmembers be allowed to participate in Knickerbocker intramural games.17 Their motion was defeated, but the event showed that some players wanted to explore other avenues of membership possibilities. During that 1856 meeting, Adams was appointed to chair a committee to organize a baseball convention for New York and surrounding clubs.18

Adams represented the Knickerbockers at the first meeting of the amateur clubs in January 1857 and was the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Regulations. At this meeting the distance between bases was standardized to 30 yards and the distance from the pitcher’s line to the center of home base was set at 45 feet. Adams also proposed that the “fly game” (fair hit batted balls required to be caught before hitting the ground to retire the batter) be used for all matches; however, that was rejected.

Adams umpired the third and deciding match of the New York vs. Brooklyn All-Star series, held at the Fashion Race Course in Queens, and called three batters out on strikes, the first year umpires were empowered to do so.

He returned as the Knickerbockers president in 1861 and left the club in March of 1862 after getting married and moving to Connecticut.

“1863 Winter Meetings: The Game Remains the Same”, Baseball’s 19th Century Winter Meetings: 1857-1900, SABR, Eric Miklich