Never Too Early To Think About Homework

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Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs made a great point prior to Doc Adams eligibility for the 2021 (2022) Hall of Fame ballot. Unfortunately, the homework wasn’t done, and Adams astonishingly did not appear on the ballot. Nor was the homework done for the 2025 ballot. Here’s hoping that the 2028 ballot will be different; however, it won’t be if the work isn’t done. Here’s are the thoughts on Doc Adams that Jay Jaffe expressed in Sports Illustrated back in December 2015: Doc Adams, pioneerRoll over, Abner Doubleday, and tell Alexander Cartwright the news. No less an authority than MLB official historian … Continue reading →

1857 Convention Of Base Ball Players

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The 1857 Convention of Base Ball Players met for the first time on January 22 at Smith’s Hotel, the headquarters of the Knickerbocker Club, with the following clubs represented: Knickerbocker, Gotham, Eagle, Empire, Putnam, Baltic, Excelsior, Atlantic, Harmony, Harlem, Eckford, Bedford, Narrau, and Continental. The clubs elected Daniel Adams of the Knickerbockers as president of the convention and then appointed a rules committee, made up of one member of each represented club. This was perhaps the most important meeting in the history of baseball. It was a meeting of the baseball clubs of New York City, and unlike the previous … Continue reading →

Doc’s Yale Auto-biography

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The following auto-biography is from the “Biographical and Historical Record of the Class of 1835 in Yale College, for the Fifty Years from the Admission of the Class to College” published in 1881 by Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Printers, 371 State Street, New Haven, CT.

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‘Laws Of Base Ball’ To Be Exhibited At The Hall Of Fame

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BREAKING NEWS: DOC ADAMS’ GROUNDBREAKING 1857 ‘LAWS OF BASE BALL’ TO BE DISPLAYED AT THE HALL O FAME. On December 6th, 1856, the Knickerbockers formed a three-man committee headed by Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams (with William Grenelle and Louis Wadsworth) to organize a convention of the New York base ball teams to standardize the rules of the game. Doc Adams, along with Grenelle and Wadsworth then represented the Knickerbockers at baseball’s 1st convention where Adams was elected the presiding officer of the convention and oversaw the development of the set of rules that mark the beginning of modern baseball. Adams’ … Continue reading →

New York Infirmary and Vaccine Physician NYC

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In 1839, Dr. Daniel L. Adams began established his practice in New York City and continued there for twenty-seven years. For most of that time he was closely connected with theNew York Dispensary, and was appointed attending physician from 1839 to 1844 and 1848 to 1854.

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Doc Adams Remembered In The New York Clipper

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The New York Clipper, an entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924, according to its masthead, was “The Oldest American Sporting and Theatrical Journal”. It was the standard bearer of sports weeklies during the 19th century. When died in 1899, Doc Adams was remembered in this publication, one of the earliest to regularly cover sports in the United States and one that played an important role in popularizing baseball in the country, as follows:

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Doc Adams And The Knickerbockers

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Doc Adam’s had a long history as an executive with the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. In May of 1846, his first full year with the Knickerbockers, Doc was elected Vice-President of the club and would, over his seventeen years of membership, go on to serve six terms as President (’47, ’48, ’49, ’56, ’57 and ’61) and several terms as a Director. In 1848, Doc headed the Knickerbocker committee to revise the original rules and regulations from the 1845 formation of the club. And in 1853 with the formation of the Gothams (1850) and the Eagle Base Ball Club (1853), … Continue reading →

Doc Adams Passed Away 127 Years Ago

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January 3, 1899, Doc Adams passed away at the age of 85 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut. In his years playing base ball (1845-1862) in New York City with the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club), he created and developed the shortstop position (1849/50), made all the balls and supervised the manufacture of all the bats. In 1857, in his ‘Laws of Base Ball’, he set the bases at 90 feet, and proposed nine innings/nine players per side and more. You can find more of Doc’s obituaries here. The New York Clipper according to its masthead, was “The Oldest American … Continue reading →

Doc’s Knickerbocker Uniform Buttons

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Two uniform buttons from Doc Adams’ Knickerbocker Base Ball Club (ca. 1855). These buttons currently reside in a private collection. They are likely the oldest known surviving piece of baseball uniform with provenance. These are also locked up in a bank vault. We have two buttons that belonged to Doc that are embossed with KBBC on them that they’re a little bit larger than a quarter and they’re studs. They are not regular sew-on buttons. And I showed very detailed pictures of them to Jim Gates at the Hall of Fame at the Library. He’s one of the head researchers … Continue reading →

Doc Adams Appearance On 2016 Hall Of Fame Ballot, Falls Only 2 Votes Short

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Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams, MD appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot for the first, and as of now, ONLY time, on the 2016 Per-integration Era ballot. On December 7, 2015,  the Pre-integration Era Committee announced the results of the voting on the 10 candidates on the 2016 ballot at the MLB Winter Meetings. Candidates needed to receive 12 of 16 votes (75%) for election. The committee failed to elect any one of the 10 candidates. Doc Adams received the highest vote total,  just 2 shy of the required votes required for election. This was Doc’s first time appearing on a … Continue reading →