So, they made it official, this gentlemen’s club, composed of seventeen merchants, twelve clerks, five brokers, four professional men, a bank teller, a “Segar Dealer”, a hatter, a cooperage owner, and several “gentlemen”. they elected Daniel L. “Doc” Adams, a physician, their president.

Why Is The Foul Pole Fair?, Vince Staten

As president of the newly minted Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, Adams saw a need for a set of formal rules, so he put together a four-man committee that included himself and Cartwright and sat down to write a set of by-laws. Only those four know who wrote what, but Cartwright, with his drafting skills, was called upon to draw the playing field and, as a result, his name has come to be attached to the rules, so much so that he is in the Hall of Fame.
The rules they came up with would pass for baseball even today. No more outs by lethal throw. No more twenty-five men out in the field at one time. They created the diamond-shaped field, decreed three outs per turn and invented the foul ball.

Why Is The Foul Pole Fair?, Vince Staten

Adams, Cartwright, and company took a children’s game and gave it a design that enabled adults to play it.

Why Is The Foul Pole Fair?, Vince Staten

It must have been a hit, because, soon, baseball clubs were forming all around the city; within a decade there was enough interest for a convention! Adams presided at the formation of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) in 1858, with twenty-two clubs from the New York area participating. Heitz and Thorn note, “It was no longer merely an amusement for exclusive, socially oriented clubs of young professional men. Workingmen were discovering the sport, and they didn’t necessarily subscribe to the ‘it’s only a game’ attitude that had been adopted from the British sporting class.”
It was more than a game; it was a competition.
And, with a competition, comes rooting and fans. And following along shortly is the admission fee.

Why Is The Foul Pole Fair?, Vince Staten