Happy Birthday, Doc Adams!!!

This morning I am getting ready to attend a celebration of a bicentennial. The last bicentennial I recall that I participated in any type of celebration was the 1976 celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I was nine and that year was the first World Series I remember watching. I bet my […]

19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legends Project — And the 2011 Candidates are…

The Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research conducted its annual election to name the 19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legend for 2011. Previous elections were won by Pete Browning (2009) and Deacon White (2010). There were seven holdovers from the 2010 ballot and three newcomers, George Gore, Paul Hines and Dickey […]

John Thorn and Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game

March 2011 was an interesting month concerning author and historian John Thorn. The same can be said for enthusiasts of baseball’s origins and how the game evolved during the 19th Century. On March 1, Commissioner Bud Selig named Thorn the Official Baseball Historian of Major League Baseball, a post held by only one other person—“the […]

19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legends Project — And the 2010 Candidates are…

It was an early April morning and I was sitting on the back porch of the Otesaga in Cooperstown, New York. The twenty minutes or so sitting alone rocking back and forth in a white rocking chair was a surreal moment for me. I have often heard stories of Johnny Bench and others sharing moments […]