Doc Adams’ Youngest Son’s Recollections Of His Father
Roger Cook Adams wrote the “Nestor of Ball Players” about his father in August 1939. Besides some facts about Doc’s contributions, it’s interesting how Roger Cook Adams highlighted how Doc’s passion for the game was invaluable to the early game,
The first five years of the existence of the Club were evidently the hardest. Enthusiasm waned and attendance lagged. There was no inter-club rivalry, and often Dr. Adams would go to Elysian Fields and find only two or three others present, compelling them to play “old cat, one or two as the case might be.” The continued existence of the Club was evidently largely due to the persistent efforts of Dr. Adams. He loved the game and nothing was too much trouble if it would promote the interests of the Club.
Mr. Spaulding, who wrote at length on the subject of base ball, always gave the Knickerbockers credit as the earliest club to play and develop the game, but also was inclined to poke fun at them on the ground that they emphasized the social side of club life almost as much as the athletic. This criticism certainly could not have applied to Dr. Adams. Fortunately he was a convincing speaker, and the many dinners that were held gave him his chance to keep up the enthusiasm in the early and most difficult days. The term “pep talk” would have meant nothing to him, but that undoubtedly was what the boys got.
Roger Cook Adams recollections can be heard in this family interview from 1962.
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