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. This was the last year of his first 3-year stint as president. In total, he served as president for 7 years.
Continue reading →Doc Adams was elected president of the Knickerbockers for the fourth time, winning an election held at the club’s April 5, 1856, meeting. This started his second 3-year stint as president. In total, he served as president for 7 years.
Continue reading →Although A.G. Spalding had ulterior motives, as we all now know, he did recognize the Knickerbockers, including Doc Adams. “Are not some of these gentlemen still living? Or perhaps some of their heirs might throw some light on the early history especially the origin of baseball.” . Salt Lake Tribune (April 2, 1905) Sadly, Daniel Lucius Adams, M.D. had died a little over 5 years earlier. Some people, however, did hear the call, and we know how that turned out. For Doc, this was the first of several miss-timed opportunities. Will 2025 be the year? #DocAdamsHOF2025
Continue reading →Doc Adams was profiled yesterday in Fox News Digital’s “Meet the American Who” series by Kerry Byrne. The article is well done and should help increase awareness of Doc Adams and his contributions to the game. The article captures Doc’s love of the game and the role he played in baseball’s development and growth during the National Pastime’s nascent period. The article can be read here. “… Baseball had no ‘fadder’; it jest growed.” Henry Chadwick, Hall of Fame Member, On Being referred to as “The Father of Baseball” Chadwick probably said it best. Baseball did not have a single … Continue reading →
On March 31, 1845 Doc Adams’ father replied to a letter from his son. Below is an interesting excerpt from that letter. Unfortunately, the transcribed letter prior to this is dated June, 1844, so there is no way of knowing more about this “proposition” of “going to Springfield”. It certainly seems that some sort of employment position had been offered to Doc. This letter is also interesting because it is only one of two letters that provide a glimpse into Doc’s possible medical specialty of “stammerers”. Yet, his Harvard Medical School specialty (or maybe it was his graduate thesis?) lists … Continue reading →
In this last chapter of my test drive of Bing’s artificial intelligence search engine, I decided to ask it to write a couple of songs about Marjorie Adams, Doc Adams’ greatest champion. Here are two songs of different styles composed by the Chat Mode, Microsoft Bing Search. Feel free to comment on which you prefer. A Song For Marjorie Verse 1: She was a woman with a mission To honor her great-grandfather’s vision He was a pioneer of baseball But he never got his rightful call Chorus: Marjorie Adams, she went to bat For Doc Adams, who gave us that … Continue reading →
On March 26, 1862, Doc tendered his resignation from the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. I shall not be able to attend the meeting of the Club this evening, and furthermore feel compelled to tender my resignation of membership. I do this with great reluctance, but in accordance with a determination, long since formed, never to remain an inactive non-playing member. It will be impossible for me to play during the coming season, but although absent in body I shall be present in spirit. My interest in the Club will never cease, nor can I forget the many happy hours spent … Continue reading →
Not long ago I received an email from Tetsuro Tanino, a staffwriter for a Japanese newspaper, the The Tokyo Shimbun. He was “in the process of researching baseball shortstop and learned that Daniel Adams was the world’s first shortstop.” He had asked to use Doc’s picture and just recently sent a copy of the article (see below) with a note (translated by an AI translator). He said that, “The article is about 170 years ago, there was a wonderful man named Daniel Adams in the United States, and he was the first person to defend the shortstop in baseball. Baseball … Continue reading →
In this latest installment from the new artificial intelligence powered Bing, for fun I thought I’d check out its creative nature and ask it to write a poem and a song for Doc Adams1. Feel free to comment on which you prefer. A Poem For Doc Adams He was a doctor and a gentleman A pioneer of the game we love He wrote the laws and played the shortstop He led the Knickerbockers with grace He was there at the dawn of baseball He organized and innovated He shaped the sport for generations He left a legacy of greatness But … Continue reading →
Bing, is introducing a new web search engine that can help you find information and answers on the internet. It is a web search engine that can also chat with you and generate various types of content such as poems, stories, code and more. It uses Artificial Intelligence techniques to understand your queries and provide relevant and engaging responses. The reason I’m talking about this is that I decided to take it for a test drive withno other topic than Doc Adams. Some results have been questionable. I debated with it as to whether Doc Adams had ever pitched until … Continue reading →