The Doc Adams Base Ball website is celebrating its 12th birthday!

It’s been a fun, exciting, and rewarding ride – one that will continue until Doc and his contributions are well known by baseball fans. Hopefully, this will result in his having a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s gallery.

A lot has happened just since this website was established 12 years ago. An engaging and memorable interview of Doc Adams (Marjorie Adams) at SABR’s 6th Annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference in Cooperstown…. Selection of Doc Adams as SABR’s 2014 Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend…the longest running Vintage Base Ball festival of its kind renamed the Doc Adams Old Time Base Ball Festival…Doc appearing on the 2016 Pre-integration Era Committee Ballot… and sadly, coming up 2 votes shy of election…the re-discovery of the ‘Laws of Base Ball‘  authored by Doc in 1857 which baseball historian John Thorn refers to as baseball’s Magna Carta which sold at auction for $3.26M…….Marjorie Adams presented, and received an honorable mention for her research presentation “Doc Adams: A Founding Father of Baseball” at the SABR 47 National Conference in New York City…signs honoring Doc Adams were dedicated in his hometown of Mont Vernon… the Doc Adams Birthplace Classic now held annually in Doc Adams’ hometown…Doc Adams’ “Laws of Base Ball” exhibited at the Library of Congress…. the Doc Adams Memorial Classic… and more – check out our site.

This year’s birthday is overshadowed by the recent loss of Nancy Adams Downey. the sister of Marjorie Adams and great-granddaughter of Doc Adams. Her friendship, class, and grace will be greatly missed.

In 2021, Nancy was preceded in death by her younger sister Marjorie Adams, who spent years educating the world about their great-grand- father, Daniel “Doc” Adams, M.D., who wrote the Laws of Base Ball and presided over the 1857 convention which adopted his Laws, officially setting the number of players and innings at nine and the distance between bases at 90 feet. Nancy helped Marjorie in her quest to secure Doc’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Three months after Doc was two votes shy of the required 75% needed for induction, the original copy of Doc’s Laws sold for $3.2 million. The next generation will continue the quest for Doc’s induction.

Nancy Downey Obituary, New York Times, July. 16, 2025

Since our last birthday…

Doc Adams was once again eligible for the 2025 Classic Baseball Era Hall of Fame Ballot and once again he was overlooked, not appearing on the ballot. In spite of the snub, we continue the efforts to raise awareness of his contributions and importance to the early game. Although the era rules make the task even more daunting, we continue to hold out hope. A series of events called A Pitch For Doc Adams were held to raise awareness. Several multimedia series were published including: Do You Know Doc Adams, Introducing Doc Adams, Doc Adams Homage, Should Doc Adams Be In The Hall Of Fame? Of Course!, In His Own Words, Speaking of Doc, Doc Adams ’24, a couple of Podcast appearances, and of course, The Doc Adams Old Time Base Ball Festival. Many notables expressed their support of Doc Adams Hall of Fame Case which was summarized in Speaking of Doc. We’re always interested in hearing from more folks. It was a busy year and we’re already planning a big year for 2027, the next time Doc Adams will be eligible for the ballot.

The Vintage Base Ball community made their feelings known about Doc Adams with special “A Pitch for Doc Adams” events, and more are planned.

We returned to X (Twitter) and debuted on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads.

Follow us to keep up to date on news, updates, presentations, and events.

“We look forward to continuing to raise awareness of Dr. Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams and hopefully seeing his contributions and achievements finally formally acknowledged. Thanks to all who have taken an active role in our efforts. Thanks to our followers and visitors for expressing interest, support, and helping us spread the word! Now we have an even greater opportunity to continue to raise awareness about Doc Adams. To be clear, we are not creating a narrative or inventing “evidence” for Doc Adams’ Hall of Fame case. We are simply sharing historical facts, and documented positions of respected historians, authors, and writers – bringing Adams’ story to a wider audience.”

Roger J, Ratzenberger, Jr.

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Please share Dr. Daniel Lucius Adams, MD’s story and help us spread the word. Share on social media – how exciting it would be if this went viral. Have your friends follow us and learn about Doc Adams. Besides raising awareness, this helps demonstrate that there is interest in early baseball history and acknowledging Doc Adams’ contributions to our National Pastime. All baseball fans should know who Doc Adams was and know his impact on our National Pastime. Of Course, Doc Adams should be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Stay tuned as we hope that our 13th year is our biggest yet as we start to gear up and plan for the 2028 Classic Baseball Era ballot.