Tag Archives: #DocAdamsHOF2022

Doc Adams Left Off 2022 Early Baseball Era Ballot

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As we waited with great anticipation for this year’s Early Baseball Era Committee vote, we were dumbfounded to hear that the “Special” Early Baseball Overview Committee inexplicably left Doc Adams off the 2022 ballot. Let’s revisit the undisputed facts about Adams’s contributions and accomplishments: Doc Adams was the top vote-getter in the 2016 election, missing by 2 votes. Since that election, his handwritten “Laws of Base Ball” were re-discovered and sold at auction for $3.26M. The new documents may be what he needs for election. “Baseball’s History Rewritten”, AP, Andrew Dalton He is baseball’s most important figure not in the … Continue reading →

The Case Has Been Made… But The Verdict, Pre-determined

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This post was planned to be a capstone in advance of the announcement of the 2022 Early Baseball Era Committee results. However, since Doc Adams was inexplicably omitted from the ballot, it is instead a sad commentary on the Hall of Fame ballot generation process. At some point in the future I may express my thoughts on that subject, but for now, I’d like to maintain the original planned focus of this post. My wife, Cathy, and I have enjoyed being a part of the decade long Dr. Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams education campaign and would like to take share … Continue reading →

Early Baseball Era Committee Members

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No words… none at all. The 16-member Hall of Fame Board-appointed electorate charged with the review of the Early Baseball Era features Hall of Fame members Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, John Schuerholz, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torre; major league executives Bill DeWitt, Ken Kendrick and Tony Reagins; and veteran media members/historians Gary Ashwill, Adrian Burgos Jr., Leslie Heaphy, Jim Henneman, Justice Hill, Steve Hirdt, Rick Hummel and John Thorn. “Golden Days Era Committee, Early Baseball Era Committee Ballots To Be Considered Dec. 5 “, BaseballHall.org

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Doc Adams Base Ball Biography (Recognition)

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Some recent highlights: 2011: John Thorn ‘re-discovers’ Doc Adams in his classic, “Baseball in the Garden of Eden”. 2011: Friends of Vintage Base Ball sponsor Doc Adams Day 2014: Selected as SABR’s Overlooked 19th Century Base Ball Legend 2015: The Old Time Base Ball Fesival held at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, the longest running annual Vintage Base Ball Festival of its kind, was renamed Doc Adams Old Time Base Ball Festival. 2016: Appeared on The National Baseball Hall of Fame Pre-Integration Era ballot, garnering 10 of 12 votes necessary for election. 2017: First Doc Adams Birthplace Classic Vintage Base Ball … Continue reading →

The Official Historian Of MLB On Doc Adams

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“He’s the true father of baseball and you’ve never heard of him.” John Thorn, Official Historian of Major League Baseball. “Who’s your Daddy? Modern baseball may have new founder“, AP Well, thanks to Thorn, for rediscovering Doc Adams. Thanks to his research and writing, other baseball historians, Marjorie Adams, Vintage Base Ball enthusiasts and the re-discovery of Doc Adams’ handwritten “Laws of Base Ball”, more people have now heard of Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams, M.D. When Doc Adams set to work in late 1856, none of these aspects of the game were settled,” said Thorn. “This was some seven years … Continue reading →

Doc Adams Base Ball Biography (Retirement)

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On March 26, 1862 at the annual meeting of the Knickerbockers, Doc presented a letter to the club secretary, James Whyte Davis: “I shall not be able to attend the meeting of the Club this evening and furthermore feel compelled to tender my resignation of membership. I do this with great reluctance but in accordance with a determination long since formed, never to remain an inactive non-playing member. It will be impossible for me to play during the coming season, but although absent in body, I shall be present in spirit. My interest in the Club will never cease, nor … Continue reading →

Talk About Big Shoes To Fill

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It’s always a challenge for children to live up to their celebrity relatives.This article in the “Argus and Patriot” (Montpelier, VT) dated August 28, 1895 illustrates that this is not a new phenomenon. The article is a recount of a game between National Life Insurance Company and the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company. The game was played on Seminary Hill in Montpelier, Vermont on a rather inclement day. The final score was 14-7 in favor of the “fire boys”. The game account is written in the ‘flowery style” of the day and interesting for that alone. However, about halfway into … Continue reading →

Hal Bock’s Vote For Doc Adams

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For many years, Doc Adams contribution to baseball was overlooked. That’s a shame, because without him, baseball would have been a vastly different game. There would be no shortstop because shortstop was Doc’s invention, redefining the geography of the game. And the distance between the bases wouldn’t have been 90 feet because that’s the distance Doc introduced to the game. There might not have been nine players to a team or nine innings to a game. Both were Doc’s ideas. Daniel Adams, equipped with degrees from Yale and Harvard, played baseball for exercise almost 200 years ago and refined the … Continue reading →

Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams, Baseball Pioneer By Peter Mancuso

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When the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR’s) Nineteenth Century Research Committee signed on to write and publish, “Base Ball’s 19th Century ‘Winter’ Meetings: 1857-1900” (the precursor to two volumes written by SABR’s Business of Baseball Research Committee covering 1901 – 2016’s Winter Meetings) we knew we had to start from the beginning.  And, that beginning was 1857, when baseball’s first true convention was held. Sixteen teams and forty-eight delegates in all met over two meeting dates in 1857 to codify the rules of play based on “the New York Game.”  They selected the then President of New York City’s … Continue reading →

Bob Lazzari On Doc Adams’ And The Hall Of Fame

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Doc Adams should have been elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame a LONG time ago. In 2015, his first time on any Hall of Fame ballot, he got the most votes but fell TWO votes short in the Pre-Integration Era Committee’s voting. Quite frankly, it’s nothing short of a TRAVESTY at this juncture that this man is not enshrined alongside the other greats of baseball. Just SOME of Doc’s contributions to the game: 1) setting the distance between bases at 90 feet 2) an early advocate for nine inning games/nine players per side 3) putting in place the “fly game”, … Continue reading →