First Pitch: How Baseball Began
With “First Pitch: How Baseball Began”, America’s premier baseball historian has created the first book for young baseball fans that truly tells the story of the origins of our national pastime. While debunking long-held myths, Thorn introduces kids to the first games, first fields, and first leagues. He also shows how the game of yesteryear connects to the game kids love to play and watch today. Featured in the book is the story of his personal discovery of the oldest reference to the sport in American history, a 1791 Massachusetts ordinance banning “Base Ball.”
Cartwright did not play in that June 19, 1846 game against the New York Club, the one the Knicks lost 23-1. Nor did Wheaton who had left the Knickerbockers for mysterious reasons and returned to playing cricket, But Tucker, who was on the rules committee with Wheaton, was joined in the Knickerbocker lineup that day by a medical doctor who had joined the club one month after its founding: Daniel Lucius Adams. Doc Adams, as he was known, had been playing ball at the park in New York’s Madison Square since 1840. He played there with men of other clubs who used a variety of rules. These included the “old-fashioned way” of throwing the hall overhand to the hatter and plugging the runner in order to put him out. The games were played with different numbers of players. Extra players were put into the outfield or behind the catcher to gather wild pitches and passed balls
First Pitch: How Baseball Began, John Thorn
By 1857, Adams recognized that with so many different rules for the game, it would be hard for baseball to become a national game. He called for a meeting of the sixteen clubs from New York City and Brooklyn (Brooklyn would not become a part of New York City un¬ til 1898). At that 1857 meeting, Adams came up with some big and long-lasting ideas. “The distance between bases I fixed at thirty yards, the only previous determination of distance being ‘the bases shall be from home to second base forty-two paces, from first to third base forty-two paces equidistant,’ which was rather vague. . . . The distance from home to pitcher’s base I made forty-five feet.”
First Pitch: How Baseball Began, John Thorn
The clubs all agreed with Adams’s idea. This decision was a huge step for baseball. The sport finally had a diamond that everyone could agree on. Although the pitching distance was expanded twice (to fifty feet in 1880 and its current distance of sixty feet, six inches in 1893) to adjust for overhand pitching, ninety feet has remained the span between the bases ever since.
Adams also tried to get the teams to agree to remove the “one-bounce” rule. At that time, a ball could be caught on one bounce or on the fly to put the batter out. The fly rule was voted down, however, not only in 1857 but also every year until 1865. Newer clubs were afraid that their players would hurt their hands. Wouldn’t the players’ gloves protect their hands? No, they didn’t wear and gloves or protective gear. In fact, wearing a glove in the field would not be a regular feature of the game for another 39 years.
First Pitch: How Baseball Began, John Thorn
Soon after, branded as a troublemaker by his new club, Wadsworth left the Knicks and returned to the Gothams. In any case, for his brave contributions, we may count Louis F. Wadsworth with Doc Adams and William R. Wheaton as a real rather than legendary father of baseball.
First Pitch: How Baseball Began, John Thorn
Discover more from Doc Adams Base Ball (Official)
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