When you come across this rough draft of history, it’s compelling. It’s like the Dead Sea Scrolls — it is endlessly worthy of research.

“Back on the Auction Block, a 19th-Century Document Essential to Baseball’s Rules”, John Thorn, New York Times (February 28, 2016)

Adams’s hand in the sport’s early rule-making is not a revelation; instead, it is the physical record of his central role memorialized in the three surviving pages of his document.

“Back on the Auction Block, a 19th-Century Document Essential to Baseball’s Rules”, Richard Sandomir, New York Times (February 28, 2016)

This compelling 1857 artifact surely establishes that Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams is unequivocally a key Founding Father of baseball and deserves to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Coming up merely 2 votes short of election in the balloting conducted last December, it would seem that this evidence, written in Doc’s own hand, should convince ALL of the members of the Early Baseball Era Committee to be convened in December of 2020, to finally acknowledge Doc’s place in baseball history.

With the recent discovery of his “Laws of Base Ball” we have tangible primary evidence of his genius. More than anyone else, he created our game of nine innings, nine men, and ninety-foot base paths.

5 Inventors“, John Thorn, Our Game

On April 24, 2016, the last hours of the auction for the “Laws of Base Ball” authored by Doc Adams lived up to its billing and did not disappoint as the closing bid came in at $3,263,246 setting a new record for the highest priced baseball document.

“The Making of Baseball’s Magna Carta”, Our Game (2/28/16)

Doc Adams’ 1857 ‘Laws of Base Ball’ Documents Sell for $3.26 Million in SCP Auctions’ Spring Premier

Laws of Base Ball - Page 1

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For his role in making baseball the success it is, Doc Adams may be counted as first among the Fathers of Baseball

John Thorn, SABR Bio Project/Doc Adams

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