Eligible: 1871
Contributions: Helped found the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, credited with deciding several important baseball rules, and led organized baseball as frequent president of Knicks and later rules committee member of the NABBP until his resignation from both in 1862.
We last left off with William Rufus Wheaton, writer of the rules and vice-president of the Knickerbockers. One regrettable fact of the Wheaton saga is that he was, while enormously important from 1837-1845, rather short-lived in the history of the game. In this article, I'd like to take a look at one of baseball's first 'lifers,' a man who dedicated decades to the founding and growing of the sport, a man of enormous influence in baseball both in its birth and in its fledgling march toward legitimacy, professionalism, and widespread renown, founding Knickerbocker Dr. Daniel Lucius 'Doc' Adams.
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| Daniel Adams, Sr. |
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I was always interested in athletics while in college and afterward, and soon after going to New York I began to play base ball just for exercise, with a number of other young medical men. Before that there had been a club called the New York Base Ball Club, but it had no very definite organization and did not last long.
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Adams joined his NY Base Ball Club in 1840. As we noted in the Wheaton entry, this 'NY Base Ball Club' was a loose affiliation of young professional men (doctors, attorneys, bankers) who formed casual clubs to play intramural games of ball (among other sports). Some of these early clubs were the NY Club, Wheaton's Gotham club, the Magnolia, the Eagle, and others. Because of the different levels of commitment of the players, the clubs were quite fluid and, according to John Thorn, the New York Club was often composed in part by members of the other clubs, and may even have served as an umbrella term for members of the various ballclubs of New York. In 1845 some of the more serious players set out to rectify this, and the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club was founded to play a strict practice and game schedule. Doc Adams joined a few weeks after the club was founded, and is pictured in a daguerreotype of the original six members.
Adams deserves special attention here, because while others, including our first inductee in Wheaton, had enormous roles in such things as rule writing, advertising or recruiting, Adams maintained a guiding hand on the sport for nearly two decades following the founding of the Knickerbocker. He played eight different positions for the Knicks, including shortstop, which he invented (originally to function as a full-time cutoff man or rover). He umpired games regularly. He was elected one the Knicks' first vice-president in 1845, and served as president in '47-'49, '56, '57, and '61. He made the equipment for the Knicks, and in 1849, in an effort to standardize the game's equipment, he personally made balls for each NY club and contracted and oversaw woodworkers making bats for each club as well. He advocated the adoption of the Knicks' ruleset, and truly drove the campaign to make his club's rules the whole city's rules, eventually the ruleset of the national pastime.
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| 1845 daguerreotype of the first six Knickerbockers. Adams featured bottom, centre |
Adams deserves special attention here, because while others, including our first inductee in Wheaton, had enormous roles in such things as rule writing, advertising or recruiting, Adams maintained a guiding hand on the sport for nearly two decades following the founding of the Knickerbocker. He played eight different positions for the Knicks, including shortstop, which he invented (originally to function as a full-time cutoff man or rover). He umpired games regularly. He was elected one the Knicks' first vice-president in 1845, and served as president in '47-'49, '56, '57, and '61. He made the equipment for the Knicks, and in 1849, in an effort to standardize the game's equipment, he personally made balls for each NY club and contracted and oversaw woodworkers making bats for each club as well. He advocated the adoption of the Knicks' ruleset, and truly drove the campaign to make his club's rules the whole city's rules, eventually the ruleset of the national pastime.
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By the late 1850s the game was becoming very popular in New York and slowly catching on around the country. In 1857 sixteen New York and Brooklyn base ball clubs set up a committee to regulate the rules and scheduling, and Doc Adams was nominated presiding officer of the first convention. In 1858 he sat as Chair of the Rules Committee, handing out to the clubs of New York the 'Laws of Base Ball', which contained such regulations as: nine men to a side, nine innings to a game, 90 feet between the bases and 45 feet from the pitcher's box to home plate, and the complete banishment of betting on games. He also supported William Wheaton's 'fly' rule - that a batter could only be put out on balls caught on the fly, not on a single bounce as some clubs played. This rule was not universally adopted until 1865. The specifications about team size, game length, and field dimensions are the first time the modern measurements were codified, and Adams's Laws serve as a crucial document in baseball history - in fact, a copy of his original Laws were sold at auction in 2016 for $3.26 million, the second most expensive piece of baseball memorabilia ever.
Adams continued to sit as chair of the Rules Committee of what was by 1858 known as the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the first governing body of baseball outside of a single club. The Knicks would no longer dictate the accepted rules of the game from their closed meetings, but Adams maintained his influence by sitting on the rules committee. John Thorn also notes that Doc Adams was a good enough player to start for the Knicks into his mid-forties, so there is a good chance he was one of the better players of the 1840s and early 1850s.
Also in 1858 Adams umpired a three-game 'Fashion Course' series, a set between top New York and Brooklyn players that can lay claim to being 1) the first baseball All-Star Game, 2) the first baseball game with paid attendance, and 3) the first game played in an enclosed park.
Adams would ultimately resign from both the Knickerbockers and the NABBP in 1862, but, he later noted, his five years as head of the Association were a time of incredible growth: by 1862 what was a little-respected boys game just 20 years previously now drew crowds numbering in the thousands. Upon retiring from the Knicks he was granted lifetime membership and awarded the title 'Nestor of Baseball Ball Players' by the club. The NABBP would have almost 100 member clubs by 1865 and more than 400 by 1867, before ultimately being replaced by the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871, the first season of truly professional baseball.
In 1861 Adams married Cornelia A Cook, an act he considered the crowning achievement of his storied life. He retired from medicine in 1865 and moved to Ridgefield, CT, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1870. In 1871 he took up the position as first president of Ridgefield Savings Bank, a post he held off-and-on until 1886, interrupted by a brief post as treasurer of the Ridgefield Library.
Though Adams retired from organized baseball in 1862, his old teammate James Whyte Davis organised one of the sport's first old-timers contests in 1875, and Adams, now 61, caught the entire game. His sons fondly remember him playing backyard ball with them into his 70s. Adams spent much of his later life in ill health and ultimately died of pneumonia in 1899, aged 85.
Whereas Wheaton was perhaps the most influential Knickerbocker in 1845, Adams had a lasting impact both on the initial Knickerbocker club and, more importantly, on the development of the sport in the early years and into the organization of the sport with the New York clubs and the NABBP.
I would like to illustrate one final point. We are, in these pages, recognizing the people who have made baseball what it is today, and the early men involved had such a simple, yet staggering impact. Take, for example, the issue of innings played. Initially, in the 1830s and even through Wheaton's 20 rules in 1837, the game was played to 21 runs, with no set innings cap. By 1856 some debate had arisen among the Knicks following an exhibition game that had gone tied to conclusion on account of darkness. Many Knicks (the 'Old Fogies', followers of Duncan F Curry, whom we shall explore later) supported the adoption of a magic number : seven - both men to a side and innings played. This was aired during a meeting and, because other members supported the rule of nine, William F. Ladd suggested the formation of a committee to decide the matter once and for all. When meeting chair Alexander Drummond appointed Ladd to the committee, he declined; Adams, a staunch supporter of nine stood in.
Adams was actually outnumbered on the Knicks - most supported the rule of seven - but he used the opportunity to invite all New York clubs to the December, 1856 Knickerbockers meeting, and then canvassed to bring them in personally. When the clubs finally came together in February of 1857 Adams had enough support from his invitees to force through the rule laying down, then and forever, nine innings of play. This 1857 meeting came to be regarded as the first meeting of the NABBP and the beginning of organized baseball.
It is through actions like this that the early pioneers of baseball had massive impacts through small actions. Adams worked to construct baseball, but instead of winning a batting title or building a World Series winning club, he did nothing less than shape the format of the game.
Adams continued to sit as chair of the Rules Committee of what was by 1858 known as the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the first governing body of baseball outside of a single club. The Knicks would no longer dictate the accepted rules of the game from their closed meetings, but Adams maintained his influence by sitting on the rules committee. John Thorn also notes that Doc Adams was a good enough player to start for the Knicks into his mid-forties, so there is a good chance he was one of the better players of the 1840s and early 1850s.
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| Daniel L 'Doc' Adams |
Adams would ultimately resign from both the Knickerbockers and the NABBP in 1862, but, he later noted, his five years as head of the Association were a time of incredible growth: by 1862 what was a little-respected boys game just 20 years previously now drew crowds numbering in the thousands. Upon retiring from the Knicks he was granted lifetime membership and awarded the title 'Nestor of Baseball Ball Players' by the club. The NABBP would have almost 100 member clubs by 1865 and more than 400 by 1867, before ultimately being replaced by the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871, the first season of truly professional baseball.
In 1861 Adams married Cornelia A Cook, an act he considered the crowning achievement of his storied life. He retired from medicine in 1865 and moved to Ridgefield, CT, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1870. In 1871 he took up the position as first president of Ridgefield Savings Bank, a post he held off-and-on until 1886, interrupted by a brief post as treasurer of the Ridgefield Library.
Though Adams retired from organized baseball in 1862, his old teammate James Whyte Davis organised one of the sport's first old-timers contests in 1875, and Adams, now 61, caught the entire game. His sons fondly remember him playing backyard ball with them into his 70s. Adams spent much of his later life in ill health and ultimately died of pneumonia in 1899, aged 85.
Whereas Wheaton was perhaps the most influential Knickerbocker in 1845, Adams had a lasting impact both on the initial Knickerbocker club and, more importantly, on the development of the sport in the early years and into the organization of the sport with the New York clubs and the NABBP.
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| An aged Adams, 1890s |
Adams was actually outnumbered on the Knicks - most supported the rule of seven - but he used the opportunity to invite all New York clubs to the December, 1856 Knickerbockers meeting, and then canvassed to bring them in personally. When the clubs finally came together in February of 1857 Adams had enough support from his invitees to force through the rule laying down, then and forever, nine innings of play. This 1857 meeting came to be regarded as the first meeting of the NABBP and the beginning of organized baseball.
It is through actions like this that the early pioneers of baseball had massive impacts through small actions. Adams worked to construct baseball, but instead of winning a batting title or building a World Series winning club, he did nothing less than shape the format of the game.
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