Daniel Lucius "Doc" Adams (November 1, 1814 – January 3, 1899) was an American baseball player and executive who is regarded by historians as an important figure in the sport's early years. For most of his career he was a member of the New York Knickerbockers. He first played for the New York Base Ball Club in 1840 and started his Knickerbockers career five years later, continuing to play for the club into his forties and to take part in inter-squad practice games and matches against opposing teams. Researchers have called Adams the creator of the shortstop position, which he used to field short throws from outfielders. In addition to his playing career, Adams manufactured baseballs and oversaw bat production; he also occasionally acted as an umpire.
From 1847 to 1861, the Knickerbockers selected Adams as their president six times, and as a vice president, treasurer, or director in six other years. As president of the club, Adams was an advocate of rule changes in baseball that resulted in nine-man teams and nine-inning games. When the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was formed in 1858, he led the rules and regulations committee of the new organization. In his role, Adams ruled that the fields' bases should be apart, the modern distance, and supported the elimination of the "bound rule", which allowed for balls caught after one bounce to be recorded as outs. He resigned from his positions with the Knickerbockers and NABBP in 1862. Adams' contributions in creating baseball's rules went largely unrecognized for decades after his 1899 death, but in 1980 a letter about him appeared in The New York Times; by 1993, researcher John Thorn had written about Adams' role. Other historians have given him credit for helping to develop the sport, and Thorn has called Adams "first among the Fathers of Baseball".
A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Medical School, Adams began working in the medical field in the late 1830s, and practiced in New York City during his time as a member of the Knickerbockers. In 1865, he left medicine and later became a bank president and member of the Connecticut legislature. He and his wife had five children.
Early life Born in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, on November 1, 1814, Adams was the fourth of Daniel and Nancy Adams' five children. The elder Daniel Adams was a physician and author; he wrote a math textbook that was widely used in the United States in the early- to mid-1800s. After being schooled at Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire from 1826 to 1828 and Amherst, Massachusetts' Mount Pleasant Classical Institution, Adams attended three colleges from 1831 to 1838. He studied at Amherst College for two years, then transferred to Yale University, where he acquired a bachelor's degree upon his graduation in 1835. Nancy Adams, Daniel's sister, indicated in a letter penned in the early 1830s that he began playing with "bats and balls" by this time.
Adams continued his studies at Harvard Medical School through 1838, obtaining an MD. Following his time in college, he joined his father's medical practice. The pair worked in Mont Vernon, before the younger Adams relocated twice, first to Boston and then to New York City. Adams also worked for the New York Dispensaries, which provided medical care to poor residents. He offered his assistance when outbreaks of cholera affected New York City. For providing vaccinations, Adams received yearly pay of $400 for a time. His field of employment gave rise to his nickname of "Doc", which was given as "Dock" at the time.
Playing career According to baseball historian John Thorn, 1839 is the year Adams became a baseball player. In an 1896 interview in The Sporting News, Adams said that "soon after going to New York I began to play base ball just for exercise, with a number of other young medical men." Starting in 1840, he was a player with the New York Base Ball Club. This team had been founded in 1837, eight years earlier than the New York Knickerbockers, who are credited in several baseball histories as pioneering the modern version of baseball. Adams played an early form of the game, but Thorn writes that he "understood [it] to be baseball, no matter what it was called".
Adams received an invitation to become a member of the Knickerbockers a month or so after the team's September 23, 1845, creation. He accepted and joined the club along with other men in the medical field; he later said that players from the New York Base Ball Club were behind the formation of the Knickerbockers. Records of the club's practice games indicate that he was a member of the Knickerbockers by November 18, 1845. In an inter-squad game held that day, which was the Knickerbockers' last of the year, Adams scored nine runs for his team as they defeated a side picked by William R. Wheaton, 51–42. The club organized its first game against outside opposition in 1846; at a June 5 meeting Adams was selected to a three-man committee whose aim was to set up a game against the New York Base Ball Club. The committee's efforts were successful, and a game was scheduled on June 19. Adams participated in the contest, which the Knickerbockers lost 23–1. Batting second in the Knickerbockers' lineup, he made one out and did not score a run.
The Knickerbockers did not play any known games against other clubs from 1847 to 1850. During these years, the team split its players into two squads, which played against each other twice per week. According to Adams, he often attempted to compel members of the Knickerbockers to attend the sessions. He was only occasionally successful, and when few Knickerbockers came, they played variants of baseball that required fewer players than regular games. Twice in June 1851, the club played against the Washington Base Ball Club, winning by scores of 21–11 and 22–20. No individual statistics are available for the first game; Adams scored twice for the Knickerbockers in the second. In 1853, Adams played in two games against the Gotham Ball Club, tallying seven runs in a pair of victories. The two clubs met three times from June to October 1854, and Adams had one run in each game. After splitting the first two contests, their October 26, 1854, game lasted 12 innings before being suspended due to darkness with the score tied 12–12; both teams fell short of the 21 runs that were required to win a game under the rules of the time.
Following two November games against the Eagle Base Ball Club that Adams is not known to have participated in, he returned to the Knickerbockers' lineup for a June 1, 1855, game against Gotham and scored three times, although Gotham prevailed, 21–12. He took part in two other 1855 games against Eagle and Gotham, respectively, scoring five runs total as the Knickerbockers won both contests. Adams competed four times for the club against outside opponents in 1856 as it won once, lost twice, and had one tie; he scored ten times, and records for two games showed that his defensive position was shortstop. The Knickerbockers had a 2–2 win–loss record in competitive games during 1857 that Adams participated in. Playing three times at shortstop and once at first base defensively, he contributed 12 runs offensively, including a six-run effort in the Knickerbockers' 37–23 victory over the Empire club on June 24. In 1858, Adams made four appearances for the Knickerbockers against outside opposition and scored nine runs, but the team went 1–3 in the games. He varied his defensive positioning between second base, third base, and shortstop.
Playing style
As a player, Adams created the concept of the shortstop position, according to Thorn and Baseball Hall of Fame researcher Freddy Berowski. In the first five years the Knickerbockers played, the team fielded anywhere from eight to eleven players. The only infielders were the players covering each of the bases; if there were more than eight players, extra outfielders were sometimes used. The outfielders had difficulty throwing baseballs into the infield, because of the balls' light weight. Adams' shortstop position, at which he started playing in about 1849 or 1850, was used to field throws from the outfielders and throw to the three infielders. With the advent of higher-quality baseballs, Adams moved toward the infield, since the distance the balls could travel increased. Prior to the invention of the shortstop, large gaps existed in the defensive positioning of infields; defensive players tended to stand by bases, leaving empty space in between them for batters. The shortstop filled one of the two gaps.
Adams hit left-handed; he said that his batted balls occasionally went into a river by the Elysian Fields, the ground in Hoboken, New Jersey, where the Knickerbockers practiced and played. Adams had a long on-field career with the Knickerbockers; he remained a player with the team until 1859. He did not limit his play to shortstop; he fielded at every position except pitcher. Little is known about the relative performance of early baseball players, and the game was largely recreational, as opposed to competitive. Thorn speculates that Adams may have been "the best player of the 1840s", citing his lengthy playing career as evidence.
Equipment maker and umpire In addition to playing the game, Adams was involved in the production of early baseball equipment. He personally manufactured baseballs for a period of time, supplying many New York City-based clubs. Adams found that when the ball was more tightly stitched, it traveled further when batted or thrown. According to author Peter Morris, Adams' ball-manufacturing efforts helped to keep the Knickerbockers in operation during their first few years, as they would otherwise have had difficulty finding balls. In later years Adams gathered rubber from old galoshes for the insides of baseballs. A tanner then used horsehide to create the balls. As late as 1863, Adams was one of the three most prominent makers of baseballs in New York, continuing to produce them by hand. Adams also played a role in producing baseball bats, choosing which wood to use and overseeing the manufacturing process.
Adams also worked occasionally as an umpire in significant games. One notable example was the final contest of a three-game series between all-star teams from Brooklyn and New York City, held on September 10, 1858, in Long Island. During the game, which the New York City all-stars won 29–18, Adams became the first umpire to use a new rule allowing for a strike to be called against a batter who refused to swing when "good pitches" were thrown to them. Previously, strikes were only called when a batter swung at a pitch and missed. Three batters were ruled out on strikes called by Adams in the game. Otherwise, the called strike rule was not applied often in its first few years of existence.
Knickerbockers and NABBP executive