Before Derek Jeter made his mark as New York’s most illustrious shortstop, there was another player, popularly known as Doc Adams, who in the mid-1800s invented the position while playing for a different local powerhouse, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club.
Daniel Lucius Adams (that was his formal name) was a pioneering figure in the sport’s early years, when mitts were unheard-of, balls were spongy, pitches were thrown underhand and the game’s rules were far from standardized — including the number of players allowed on the field, how many innings constituted a game and the dimensions of the diamond.