[3] His father, James Chadwick, was a supporter of the French Revolution who also tutored John Dalton in music and botany.

Edwin was England's sanitary philosopher who developed environmental measures and laws designed to counteract the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Biographer Andrew Schiff writes that Chadwick "was not brought up to value possessions or with an understanding of commerce and trade; rather he received an education that was drenched in moral philosophy and science.

A keen amateur statistician and professional writer, he helped sculpt the public perception of the game, as well as providing the basis for the records of teams' and players' achievements in the form of baseball statistics.

[13] In a more recent view, Schiff suggests that Chadwick was the father of baseball because he nurtured the sport for decades, rather than a claim to have started the American game.

[2] Early baseball had a provision known as the "bound rule", which held that a fielder could catch a batted ball on one bounce and that it would still be recorded as an out.

Chadwick was an outspoken critic of the rule for many years, stating that fielders should have to catch a ball on the fly for it to count as an out.

[14] Chadwick edited The Beadle Dime Base-Ball Player, the first annual baseball guide on public sale, as well as the Spalding and Reach annual guides for a number of years and in this capacity promoted the game and influenced the infant discipline of sports journalism.

Despite a friendship with Albert Spalding, Chadwick was scornful of the attempts to have Abner Doubleday declared the inventor of baseball.

[15] Author William Cook wrote that "Chadwick was at times a bit self-aggrandizing, but his heart was always deeply rooted in looking after the best interest of the game.

[16] Chadwick is credited with devising the baseball box score[17] (which he adapted from the cricket scorecard) for reporting game events.

[20] Further refinement by other early baseball proponents led to all National League teams calculating batting averages by 1876.

The contest took place at Dexter Park, before a vast crowd of spectators, the majority of whom looked to see the Nationals have almost a walk-over.

In the game A. G. Spalding was pitcher and Ross Barnes shortstop for the Forest City nine; these two afterwards becoming famous as star players of the Boston professional team of the early seventies.

The final result, however, was the success of the Forest Citys by a score of 29 to 23 in a nine innings game, twice interrupted by rain.Late in life, Chadwick continued editing the Spalding Base Ball Guides and producing a column for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

[21] In late 1905, he wrote the editor of The New York Times to propose widening of the baseball bat to overcome the advantage that pitchers had established in the game.