Swing , hit , political campaign , slide into home . That ’s essentially all there is to baseball game , veracious ? incorrect . The sportsman ’s far more complex than that , thanks in part to the “ Laws of Base Ball , ” a collection of 23 historic written document from 1857 that established some of the sport ’s indispensable normal . Last Sunday , these early instructions became one of history ’s highest - priced pieces of sport memorabilia , The New York Timesreports , thanks to an anon. bidder who acquired the originative papers via online auction bridge for a staggering $ 3.26 million .
SCP Auctions , which described the regulation as the “ Magna Carta of our national interest , ” was responsible for the sale . Bidding began on April 6 , and lasted for just over two week .
Daniel “ Doc ” Adams , president of the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club , wrote the “ law of nature ” in January 1857 when 14 baseball guild met in New York City to codify rule for the sport , The Guardianwrites . Today , Adams is credited with creating many of the secret plan ’s fundamental instructions , including nine men on a side , 90 - groundwork base path , andnine innings to a game .
For year , the " Laws of Base Ball " were owned bythe phratry of William Grenelle , a Knickerbockers delegate to the 1857 convening . An anon. buyerpurchased the document in 1999 for $ 12,000 ; he did n’t fuck their true value until the auction house assess them and predict they would sell for more than $ 1 million , the Associated Press reports .
Think $ 3.26 million is a lot of money ? Believe it or not , pop off - hard baseball game fans have blast out even more cash for prized relics from the sport ’s history . In 2012 , Babe Ruth ’s 1920 New York Yankees jerseysold for $ 4.4 million . In 2010 , James Naismith ’s 1891 " Founding Rules of Basketball"sold for $ 4.3 million , The Guardianpoints out .
