Doc Adams And Achieving Excellence

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Almost 200 years ago, today (July 9, 1827), Daniel Adams, M.D. wrote a letter to his 12-year-old son, Daniel Lucius Adams, while he was attending the Kimball Union School in Meriden, NH: “One of your greatest faults as a scholar is the want of perseverance, to struggle with little recurring difficulties; you too readily give up, before making suitable effort to overcome them. This propensity you must correct, or you can never attain to anything great or excellent. Remember what Virgil says:– ‘possunt quia posse videntur’, a motto which you will recollect I told you should be inscribed on everything … Continue reading →

In Memory Of Marjorie Adams

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since we lost Marjorie Adams, great-granddaughter of Dr. Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams and his greatest advocate. Although we miss her dearly, today, we remember happier times as we keep her dream alive. Marjorie’s tireless efforts to spread the story of her great-grandfather, Doc Adams, enlightened and inspired many baseball fans. She conducted a campaign to educate people on Doc’s role as a pioneer of our National Pastime and his importance to baseball’s survival and growth during its nascent period. Her goal was to see him recognized with long overdue enshrinement in … Continue reading →

“Laws of Base Ball” Debuted At The Oregon Historical Society

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The Oregon Historical Society’s Baseball’s Magna Carta: Setting the Rules of America’s Game Exhibit opened on July 1, 2016. The public debut of the “Laws of Base Ball” authored by Doc Adams which sold, at auction, for a baseball document record $3,263,246. The papers were first exhibited in Portland because the new owner, who chooses to remain anonymous, is a “friend of the historical society.” The documents “thoroughly change the early history of baseball,” the historical society states. The 1857 documents are the “first written-down rules of what became the modern game,” Oregon Historical Society Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk told … Continue reading →

The Father Of The National Game Still Living In New Haven

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So far the earliest reference we have found referring to Dr. Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams, M.D. as a “Father of Baseball” in June 23, 1895. That was 12 years before the Mills Commission created the Doubleday myth and 43 years before Alexander Cartwright was elected into the Hall of Fame. This article predates the seminal Sporting News interview by 8 months. This article was in a column called “Side Lights On The Ball Field” in the Chicago Chronicle. The piece teases the article with “The Father of the National Game Still Living In New Haven” and starts out with “Father … Continue reading →

First Base Ball Game At Elysian Fields

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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. The Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club (aka “the New York Nine”) 23–1 in four innings. Elysian Fields First Game The enduring fame of this particular game and of its players is the product of circumstance and self-aware myth-making. As the official historian of Major League Baseball, John Thorn, has written: “The history of baseball is a lie from beginning to end, from its creation myth to its rosy … Continue reading →

The Knickerbocker Experience

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We’d like to highlight an effort that brings Doc Adams and the Knickerbockers to life, The Knickerbocker Experience. It is the brainchild of Jeff “Pinetar” Kornhaas, The Knickerbocker Experience, offers an opportunity to play the game as historically accurate as possible.  “Rules aren’t bent” or “exceptions made” to make it work.  The intent is to provide an historically accurate game of base ball. That is the point of the “Knickerbocker Experience”. Play the game as it was played in 1858, 1864 or 1865.  Give people that chance to try or watch it, unrestricted by “variations or customs”.  Just pure base … Continue reading →

The Bat And Ball Letter

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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”. It is the earliest known evidence of Doc’s interest in the game. Doc was at Yale when he received this letter from his father with all the usual admonitions of you’re not studying hard enough … Continue reading →

Analysis of the “Laws of Base Ball”

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In Volume 9 of “Base Ball – A Journal of the Early Game” [2016], Theodore A Frank, Jr. (a pseudonym) performed an analysis of the “Laws of Base Ball.” Doc Adams’ handwritten “Laws of Base Ball” were written in 1857, auctioned first in 1999, and re-discovered and auctioned again in 2016. This article evaluates the document’s content and historical significance. The following are excerpts from the article. The full analysis can be found on Internet Archive. Conclusion While not every provision proposed by Doc Adams’ “The Laws of Base Ball” was adopted (as written) by the Convention, it is very … Continue reading →

A Little Knickerbocker Base Ball Club History

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On June 5, 1846, the first honorary members were elected, viz. James Lee and Abraham Tucker. At the same meeting Curry, Adams and Tucker were appointed a committee to arrange the preliminaries, and conclude a match with the New York Base Ball Club. From all the information the writer has been able to gather, it appears that this was not an organized club, but merely a party of gentlemen who played together frequently, and styled themselves the New York Club. However, the match was played at Hoboken on June 19, 1846, it being the first the Club engaged in, and … Continue reading →