On March 31, 1845 Doc Adams’ father replied to a letter from his son. Below is an interesting excerpt from that letter.

Unfortunately, the transcribed letter prior to this is dated June, 1844, so there is no way of knowing more about this “proposition” of “going to Springfield”. It certainly seems that some sort of employment position had been offered to Doc. This letter is also interesting because it is only one of two letters that provide a glimpse into Doc’s possible medical specialty of “stammerers”. Yet, his Harvard Medical School specialty (or maybe it was his graduate thesis?) lists “Purulent Ophthalmia” (inflammation of the eye/conjunctivitis).

We have a letter dated March of 1845, about seven months before Doc joined the Knickerbockers, and we don’t have the letters leading up to it. But this letter clearly says oh you know, ”I’m glad you’re not going to take this position in Springfield and stay in New York and cure all stammerers that come.” That’s a direct quote right from the letter. “So, it’s useless but kind of fun to speculate what might have happened to baseball if Doc had moved to Springfield. Would have he gotten involved in town ball which was so popular up in Massachusetts? What would have happened to baseball in New York? It’s fascinating… it’s a fun what-if and just a complete waste of time but, but, still it’s a lot of fun to think about.

“My Baseball History – Episode 202“, Marjorie Adams

Thanks goodness for baseball that Doc stayed in New York. So, how would things have changed had he moved to Springfield? Luckily, we’ll never know.