A set of documents setting down the rules of baseball, dating back to 1857, were recently sold for the princely sum of US$3.26 million. The price was the highest ever recorded for a baseball-related document, though it didn’t quite match the sum paid for an early draft of the rules of basketball. That sold for $4.3 million in 2010.
The baseball documents were the first to spell out key rules that have since come to define the sport, including details of the nine-player teams, the 90-foot distance between the corners of the diamond as well as the game’s nine-innings duration.
The rules were set down by Daniel Lucas “Doc” Adams, oft-cited in the contentious debate about the identity of the true founder of the sport. Adams was a practising physician and a leading member of the New York Knickerbockers. In 1857, he presided over a gathering of 14-teams, all of whom had come together to agree on the rules of the game.
The documents offer a fascinating hint at some of the discussions that were had back then, with various crossings out and changes. They were then, apparently, passed to a fellow Knickerbocker – William H. Grennelle – to be written up in his fair flowing hand.
Understandably, the game has continued to evolve since the rules were written down. In the documents, for instance, Adams refers to runs as “aces” and to batters as “strikers.” The game described in the rules, though, is effectively the same as the game that is still played today.