Quiz: Public Display Of The “Laws Of Base Ball”
In 2016, Doc Adams’ handwritten “Laws of Base Ball” was re-discovered after being “lost” for 159 years since they were presented at the first baseball convention in 1857. The documents would be sold at auction for $3.26 million and subsequently being exhibited to the public on multiple occasions at multiple venues. Here are three questions about public displays of the “Laws of Base Ball“.
When did the Hall of Fame have to obtain the “Magna Carta of Baseball” but choose to pass?
The Hall passed on an opportunity to obtain the documents in 1967.
Maybe the Hall did not recognize the importance of the documents at the time. Or maybe the price was too steep, although there is no indication that this was nothing other than a donation. Or maybe something else.
… the original documents that helped establish as we know it. Those papers remained with the family and out of public awareness for more than a century after the convention – until 1967, when Grenelle’s granddaughter wrote a letter to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I have discovered among my old family papers one which I am told is of great value and interest in the history of baseball”, wrote Constance Grenelle Wilcox Pignatelli, a fascinating character who had married an Italian prince. The Hall of Fame declined to take the documents, which didn’t surface again for over three decades
“Baseball’s Magna Carta”, Library of Congress Magazine, Mark Hartsell
When did the Hall of Fame finally acknowledge the “Groundbreaking Rules of Baseball” and debut the documents in an exhibit (Taking the Field)?
Interestingly, although the Hall had no interest in obtaining the documents in 1967, they referred to the documents as “Groundbreaking Rules of Baseball” in 2026, writing “how they helped advance the game, and how they remain relevant to baseball today”, and state that “these documents mark a critical turning point in the history of our national pastime”.
The ‘Laws of Base Ball” debuted at the Hall of Fame on May 22, 2026 in the “Taking the Field” exhibit. This occurred as part of the America250th Memorial Day celebration and was made possible by a long-term loan by the documents’ owner, Hayden Trubitt.
In any event, the Hall still didn’t seem to be getting the full picture as they are advertised as having been written by the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club – no mention of Doc Adams nor William Grenelle.
The exhibit at the Hall of Fame is the third time that the “Laws of Base Ball” have been on public display? When and where were the first two times they were exhibited?
For the first time since being written in 1857, the “Laws of Base Ball” were displayed to the public at the Oregon Historical Society in 2016.
… the content of the documents thoroughly change the early history of baseball by naming Daniel “Doc” Adams the proper father of the modern game, not the often mis-credited Abner Doubleday. (Oregon Historical Society to Host First Public Exhibit of “The Magna Carta of Baseball”, 2016)
“Oregon Historical Society to Host First Public Exhibit of ‘The Magna Carta of Baseball'”, The Oregon Historical Society (June 1, 2016)
The documents, which make a strong case for New York Knickerbocker player and president Daniel “Doc” Adams being the game’s true patriarch, initially went to auction in 1999. (Baseball’s Magna Carta, 2016)
“Baseball’s Magna Carta”, The Historian – Member Newsletter for the Oregon Historical Society (Summer 2016)
Adams has been considered one of the pioneers of the game for many years, but the discovery of his “Laws of Base Ball” could put him at the top of the pile.
“Oregon Historical Society lands first-ever display of recently discovered ‘Magna Carta of baseball'”, Douglas Perry, The Oregonian/OregonLive (June 1, 2016)
The second time the Laws were displayed was in 2018 at the Library of Congress.
The ‘Laws of Base Ball’ next appeared at the Library of Congress, in 2018, as part of the Baseball Americana exhibit., This is how they were described then:
This “Magna Carta” on loan for the exhibition by San Diego corporate lawyer, Hayden Trubitt, actually consists of three sets of documents: separate drats of rule proposals by two Knickerbocker officials and the final, formal document the club’s delegates presented to the convention rules committee.
The first is a draft of 23 proposed rules titles the “Laws of Base Ball” written by Knickerbockers President Daniel “Doc” Adams – a man Thorn has called the “true father of baseball”. (Hartsell, 2018)
John Thorn, Official Historian of Major League Baseball, delivered a speech at the opening on July 14, 2018. Excerpts from his speech can be found below. The entire speech can be found at the link in the citation.
Paternity disputes have long plagued baseball. I have written extensively on that subject and will address it only in passing today, hoping instead to illuminate the historic importance of the “Laws of Base Ball” on exhibit now. Abner Doubleday, anointed by a Commission of Baseball Elders in 1908, gave Cooperstown an excuse to establish a fine museum in an economically challenged upstate village. Meanwhile his “rival” Alexander Cartwright — both men went to their graves not knowing that they had invented baseball — was awarded a plaque in the Hall of Fame that credits him as having “set bases 90 feet apart” and “established 9 innings as a game and 9 players as [a] team.” This is demonstrably false, as none of these aspects of the game were settled until 1857, some eight years after Cartwright had left New York for Hawaii, never to return east.
“The Laws of Baseball … and the ‘Unchanging Game’”, Our Game, John Thorn (2018)
Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams was the guiding force; William Henry Grenelle rendered his teammate’s draft into the document that, in fine Spencerian Script, was placed before the first convention of baseball clubs. Adams and Grenelle were two of the three Knickerbocker Club delegates to that gathering; the third was Louis Fenn Wadsworth, to me an especially fascinating character. We will have more to say about each of them in time.
“The Laws of Baseball … and the ‘Unchanging Game’”, Our Game, John Thorn (2018)
Great documents are the products of great men, whose contributions — even their identities — may be erased from mainstream history. Until recently, that had been the fate of “Doc” Adams, who more than anyone reshaped his club’s primitive 1845 rules to become the game that would endure. While I have written about him and the early game for decades now, many of those learning about the dramatic find of these documents will ask, Who was Doc Adams? Who was William Henry Grenelle? Who was Louis F. Wadsworth?
“The Laws of Baseball … and the ‘Unchanging Game’”, Our Game, John Thorn (2018)
Adams made the balls, oversaw production of the bats, and added the position of shortstop to what had originally been an eight-man game, or sometimes a game of extra players who were stationed in the outfield or behind the catcher. Though he was an accomplished player, it was Adams’ pioneering contributions that won for him, in 2015, his first year on the ballot, the most votes of any Veterans Committee candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame; all the same he fell two votes short of induction, as most on the selection committee had never heard of him before they began their deliberations. With the rediscovery in the very next year of his “Laws of Base Ball” we have tangible primary evidence of his genius. While I have no personal stake in whether he is one day welcomed into the Hall of Fame, I would suggest that his merits are evident.
“The Laws of Baseball … and the ‘Unchanging Game’”, Our Game, John Thorn (2018)
Discover more from Doc Adams Base Ball (Official)
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