Since Doc’s bid for enshrinement fell short on the 2016 Pre-integration Era ballot, his seminal handwritten baseball artifact, the “Laws of Base Ball”, resurfaced.
“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”, New York Times, Richard Sandomir
The papers had been in the family of Adams’ fellow Knickerbocker and baseball pioneer William Grenelle and took an intriguing journey..
… Constance Grenelle Wilcox Pignatelli, of Madison, Connecticut, and it is through her that the documents survived. Born in 1895, she was an author who married an Italian prince in 1925 and, even after her divorce in 1937, continued to call herself Princess Pignatelli di Montecalvo. The Laws of Base Ball descended to her and in 1967 she attempted to sell the documents to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which, perhaps not recognizing their importance, declined. The Laws went back into her desk drawer; the Princess died in 1977; and the documents were not to see the light of day for another two decades.
The Laws of Baseball came up at auction on June 22, 1999. The following description from the Sotheby’s catalog for Sale 7332 made no mention of the role of the documents in the baseball convention of 1857, nor did it recognize the hand of the “third document” which, most importantly, was written by Doc Adams. The documents were randomly placed in the Sotheby’s sale amongst rare books and they received no specific promotion; the catalogue did not even offer an illustration. The documents were purchased sight unseen by a remote bidder who thought they held some interest; the price: $12,650. The Laws returned to a desk drawer for another fifteen years or so.
At the time, no baseball researcher or writer had ever viewed the documents or even knew of their existence. When they were slated to come up at auction again in April 2016, I was asked to research their significance and contribute my finding to the auction house catalog.
The Laws of Baseball … and the “Unchanging Game”, Our Game, John Thorn
This compelling artifact surely establishes that Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams is unequivocally a baseball pioneer and key Founding Father of baseball who deserves to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Coming up merely 2 votes short of election in the balloting conducted a mere four months earlier, it would seem that this evidence, written in Doc’s own hand, should convince ALL of the members of the Classic Baseball Era Committee, to finally acknowledge Doc’s place in baseball history. If he ever makes another ballot.
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, Our Game, John Thorn
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)
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
The documents last auction ended on April 24, 2016. The last hours of the auction 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
Click on photo below to enlarge.
The new documents may be what he needs for election. (Dalton, Baseball’s History Rewritten, 2016)
“Baseball’s History Rewritten”, Associated Press, Andrew Dalton
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