The National Baseball Hall of Fame‘s BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee released the 2025 Classic Baseball Era ballot Monday, November 4, 2024 (or actually Friday the 1st when the first copies of the Hall of Fame’s bi-monthly magazine, Memories and Dreams, were delivered).

Once again, there was a glaring omission from the names on the ballot, Daniel Lucius ‘Doc’ Adams.

There re many factors that play a large role in who appears on a ballot and who is inducted and who isn’t. Not all of those are statistics and contributions to the game. Especially, when it comes to the Era Committees. Certain individuals are considered over-and-over-and-over again and continue to appear on ballot-after-ballot-after-ballot even though they don’t come close to receiving the required number of votes for election while other more deserving candidates continue to be overlooked and snubbed.

Yet a baseball pioneer about whom John Thorn, the Official Historian of MLB, said “is baseball’s most important figure not in the Hall of Fame“, has appeared on the ballot only ONE SINGLE time. He was the top-vote getter that year, receiving 10 of the 12 votes required for election at that time.

Subsequently, Adams’s hand-written “Laws of Base Ball” were rediscovered. Again, in Thorn’s words, “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.”

Doc Adams has been eligible for two ballots since then, the 2022 Early Baseball Era and 2025 Classic Baseball Era ballots, and conspicuously omitted both times. Of course, the Era Committees have been restructured multiple times during that time which has no small impact on Adams chances of ever being receiving the recognition he deserves. The 2025 Historical Baseball Overview Committee:

• Adrian Burgos Jr (Negro League Historian, University of Illinois)
• Jim Henneman (formerly Baltimore Sun)
• Steve Hirdt (Stats Perform)
• Jim Reeves (formerly Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
• Glenn Schwarz (formerly San Francisco Chronicle)
• David O’Brien (The Athletic)
• Tracy Ringolsby (Sportswriter and original columnist for Baseball America)
• Susan Slusser (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Mark Whicker (Los Angeles News Group)
• Bob Elliot (Canadian Baseball Network)

There was another conspicuous omission, an early baseball historian on the committee. Thanks to the Hall of Fame’s most recent restructuring of the Era Committees (formerly the Veteran’s Committee) the Classic Baseball Era ballot spans over 130 years. Arguably, the committee’s knowledge and expertise covered 60-70 years. In any event, there was an undeniable focus on the recent players rather than addressing long-overlooked oversights.

The 8 candidates named to 2025 Classic Baseball Era ballot all have good credentials although, in our opinion, they pale in comparison to those of Doc Adams.

Not only that, but 6 of the 8 candidates played in the most recent 20 years of the 130+ span covered by this Era and each has appeared on a ballot 18 or more times. The remaining 2 candidates are from the Negro Leagues and have only appeared on a ballot once. It should be noted that Vic Harris’ (10 votes, 62.5%) and John Donaldson’s (8 votes, 50%) only other appearance on a ballot was on the 2022 Early Baseball ballot. With 2 exceptions, the candidates were each considered more 18 or more times and never received the votes required for election. For most, their Hall of Fame ballot career is longer than their playing career!

“It does make it more challenging to get on a ballot, which I think is pretty obvious,” said Rawich. “The ballots not only will be a little bit smaller, but will also cover a large period of time.”

The goal would appear to be cutting down on some of the ballot’s ballast, the players whose candidacies have been endlessly reheated to little avail — a major reason why the Early Baseball period election was supposed to occur once a decade. “There was definitely a feeling that we wanted to make sure that we’re not looking at a lot of the same players every single time,” said Rawich. “Once somebody’s had a chance to be reviewed a number of times, it’s time to let somebody else get looked at.”

“The Hall of Fame Shakes Up its Era Committee System Yet Again”, Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs (4/26/2022)

If the above is to be believed, the restructuring also failed in terms of who was named to the ballot resulting in more (and better) candidates not getting looked at (re: Doc Adams).

In fact, it not only backfired to fix the problem it clearly made things worse. The BBWAA Historical Overview Committee seems content to freeze out early candidates (even those who were rarely if ever considered) and focus on those that they’ve seen play, know, etc. If it takes 18, 20, or mores attempts, they’ll continue to work to get them in.

Just a reminder of how we got here.

So yes, that was absolutely thrilling and this was about six weeks after Doc had been on the ballot for the Hall of Fame and had lost by two votes. And I’m thinking to myself, what if this was a year ago. This would have improved his chances and, and the man was very nice as if he could read my mind. He said yes, I wish I’d started this much earlier. He was very nice about it. We’re still friends and we communicate occasionally, and we keep in touch and as far as I’m concerned, the confidentiality agreement is still in effect. And he gave me full-size copies of the Laws of Base Ball, all ready for me, to take with me. He said no you have to sign the confidentiality. I said fine. I said can I tell my sister? Please let me tell my sister, I got to tell somebody. He said yes you can tell your sister. I, I said good, okay I’ll tell her. Which I did. I mean they’re out there now. They’ve been displayed. That some of the pages have been displayed at the Library of Congress which I went to see two years ago. That was kind of cool. That was really cool. That was fun.

Marjorie Adams

Adams was on the Hall of Fame ballot for 2016, but Baseball’s Pre-integration Era Committee gave him 10 of 16 votes, he needed 12. The new document may be what he needs for induction.

Andrew Dalton, AP

He [Doc Adams] is baseball’s most important figure not in the Hall of Fame…

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.

John Thorn, Official Historian of MLB

Adams remains the most important figure not on the Hall of Fame. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Now with the rediscovery of his Laws of Base Ball, drafted for presentation to the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club and thence to the floor of the 1857 Convention, we have tangible primary evidence of his genius. Somebody asked me, today, how many votes I thought Adams might get when he comes up for election at the Hall of Fame, because out of the 16, he got 10 last time, 12 is necessary, for election. I said I thought it would be 16 because what you have here in Portland today is incontrovertible proof of Adams genius.

John Thorn, Official Historian of MLB

Well, it seems that Doc Adams can’t even get one vote, never mind 16. Probably the only to keep him from getting elected is to keep him off the ballot.

With Doc Adams, the leading vote-getter from that latter slate, not on this one, Dahlen’s path to election is more clear, though the variety and depth of the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues Black baseball candidates threatens to overshadow his cause.

Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs

The Hall of Fame should create a Pioneers Committee, which should be composed of credentialed historians with a demonstrated knowledge of baseball history, which would meet every few years with the charge to consider, well, that’s the tricky part. …

A new committee could address the Cartwright mistake by electing Doc Adams, described by MLB’s official historian John Thorn as “first among the fathers of baseball.”

Rob Neyer, Yahoo Sports

A Pioneers’ Committee or even a Special Pioneer’s Election would definitely work, not only for Doc Adams, but for several other early pioneers and it would open the door for some creative considerations (e.g. Dr. Frank Jobe). However, that is not likely with respect to the early pioneers as the most recent changes to the Era Committees were intended to minimize access for earlier candidates. The BBWAA-appointed Historical Overview Committee has been more than happy to assist.

On the other hand, what of Doc Adams? The long-overlooked pioneer led the charge to standardize and refine the rules of the game in the mid-19th century, including nine-man lineups and nine-inning games — innovations inaccurately credited to Alexander Cartwright on his Hall of Fame plaque — as well as the 90-foot distance between the bases, the “fly rule” (eliminating balls caught on one bounce from being automatic outs), and the shortstop position (which helped to differentiate the game from rounders). On the 2016 Pre-Integration ballot, from which no candidate was elected, Adams had the highest share at 62.5%, but he was conspicuously absent from the 2022 Early Baseball ballot, and he now faces additional competition for space and attention from candidates who came along more than a century later. A cynic might wonder if the Hall simply wanted to spare itself the scrutiny of contradicting one of its existing plaques in the face of more modern research — and focus more upon drawing fans to Cooperstown to celebrate living honorees of more debatable merits.

Jay Jaffe, FanGraphs

Adams’ cause offered the Hall of Fame to strike a blow for historical accuracy. As it does so often, it swung and missed.

Robert Sampson, Historian

Another person I respect, puts this all in perspective, “My standard observation is that there are three distinct institutions housed under the one roof: the museum, the research library, and the room with the plaques. The museum and the library are excellent and worthy of our appreciation. The room with the plaques is easily ignorable, except inasmuch as you have to go through it to get to the library. The room with the plaques is also quite silly, with its faux classical temple architecture and ridiculous criteria for induction. I pause to appreciate some of the more ridiculous plaques, but don’t obsess over it. I am happier for this”.

I truly hope that I can embrace that philosophy… maybe Doc Adams gets his plaque.

Stay tuned, there’s so much more to say.