Alexander Cartwright

Alexander Joy Cartwright

young man with beard

Cartwright in 1855
Born Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr.
(1820 -04-17)April 17, 1820
New York City, US
Died July 12, 1892(1892-07-12) (aged 72)
Honolulu, O'ahu, Kingdom of Hawai'i
Known for Invention of the modern game of baseball
Signature

Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr. (April 17, 1820 – July 12, 1892) is referred to as a "father of baseball". Cartwright is thought to be the first person to draw a diagram of a diamond-shaped baseball field, and the rules of the modern game are based on the Knickerbocker Rules developed by Cartwright and a committee from his club, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club.[1] With the myth of Abner Doubleday inventing baseball debunked, Cartwright was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as an pioneering contributor 46 years after his death.[2][3] Cartwright was officially declared the inventor of the modern game of baseball by the 83rd United States Congress on June 3, 1953.[2][4][5][6]

Early life and work

Cartwright was born in 1820 to Alexander Carwright, Sr. (1784-1855), a merchant sea captain, and Esther Rebecca Burlock Cartwright (1792-1871). Alexander Jr. had six siblings. He first worked at the age of 16 in 1836 as a clerk for a Wall Street broker, later doing clerical work at Union Bank of New York. After hours, he played bat-and-ball games in the streets of Manhattan with volunteer firefighters. Cartwright himself was a volunteer, first with Oceana Hose Company No. 36, and then Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12.[1][7] Cartwright's ancestor Edward Cartwright immigrated from Devonshire, England to New England around 1661.[8][9] Cartwright married Eliza Van Wie, from Albany, on June 2, 1842.[7]

A fire destroyed Union Bank in 1845, forcing Cartwright to find other work. He became a bookseller with his brother, Alfred.[7]

Knickerbocker Base Ball Club

The New York Knickerbockers Baseball Club, circa 1847. Cartwright at the top middle. [10]
Early baseball game played at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey (lithograph by Currier and Ives)

Cartwright led the establishment of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club (after the Knickerbocker Fire Engine Company) in 1842. The Knickerbockers played a brand of bat-and-ball game often called "town ball" or "round ball," but in New York more usually "base ball," somewhat similar to but not identical to the English sport of rounders, on a field at 4th Avenue and 27th Streets.[1]

In 1845 Cartwright and a committee from his club drew up rules converting this playground game into a more elaborate and interesting sport to be played by adults. The major precepts included the stipulations that foul territories were to be introduced for the first time, and the practice of retiring a runner by hitting him with a thrown ball was forbidden.[11] Cartwright is also erroneously credited for introducing flat bases at uniform distances, three strikes per batter, and nine players in the outfield.[12] However, modern scholarship has cast doubt on the originality of these rules, as information has come to light about the New York clubs that predated the Knickerbockers, in particular the rules devised by William R. Wheaton for the Gotham Club in 1837. Baseball historian Jeffrey Kittel has concluded that none of the Knickerbocker Rules of 1845 was original, with the possible exception of three-out innings.[13] As MLB's Official Historian John Thorn wrote, Cartwright has "a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame on which every word of substance is false. Alex Cartwright did not set the base paths at ninety feet, the sides at nine men, or the game at nine innings." [14]

The first clearly documented match between two baseball clubs under these rules took place on June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. In this match, the Knickerbockers lost to the "New York Nine" by a score of 23 to 1.[15] Some authors have also questioned the supposed "first game" under the new rules. The Knickerbockers' score-book shows intra-club games during 1845; the New York Base Ball Club played at least three games against a Brooklyn club in 1845 also, but the rules used are unknown.. Those who have studied the score-book have concluded that the differences in the games of 1845 and 1846, compared with the specifications of the Knickerbocker rules, are minimal.

Hawaii

stone monument
Cartwright's tombstone in Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu

In 1849, Cartwright headed to California for the gold rush, and then continued on to the Hawaiian Islands. His family came to join him in 1851: wife Eliza Van Wie, son DeWitt (1843–1870), daughter Mary (1845–1869), and daughter Catherine (Kate) Lee (1849–1851). In Hawaii sons Bruce Cartwright (1853–1919) and Alexander Joy Cartwright III (1855–1921) were born. He set up a baseball field on the island of Oahu at Makiki Field.

Cartwright served as fire chief of Honolulu from 1850 through June 30, 1863.[16] As advisor to King David Kalākaua and Queen Emma he encouraged the growth of baseball on the islands until his death on July 12, 1892, a year before the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. One of the leaders of the overthrow movement was Lorrin A. Thurston who played baseball with classmate Alexander Cartwright III at Punahou School. He was buried in Oahu Cemetery.[15]

Legacy

Cartwright in later life as fire chief
Cartwright's plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

After about two decades of controversy, invention of America's "national game" of baseball was attributed to Abner Doubleday by the Mills Commission (1905–1907). Some baseball historians promptly cried foul and others joined throughout the 20th century. Cartwright was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.

New York City librarian Robert W. Henderson documented Cartwright's contributions to baseball in his 1947 book Bat, Ball, and Bishop, which Congress cited in recognizing Cartwright as the inventor of the modern game.[17] Although there is no question that Cartwright was a prominent figure in the early development of baseball, some students of baseball history have suggested that Henderson and others embellished Cartwright's role. The primary complaint is that touting Cartwright as the "true" inventor of the modern game was an effort to find an alternative single individual to counter the "invention" of baseball by Abner Doubleday.[18]

Cartwright was the subject of a 1973 biography, The Man Who Invented Baseball, by Harold Peterson.[19] He was the subject of two biographies written in 2009. Jay Martin's Live All You Can: Alexander Joy Cartwright & the Invention of Modern Baseball supports Cartwright as the inventor of baseball, while Alexander Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend by Monica Nucciarone credits Cartwright as one of the game's pioneers but not its sole founder.[20] The 2004 discovery of a newspaper interview with fellow Knickerbocker founder William R. Wheaton cast doubt on Cartwright's role, Wheaton stating that most of the rules long attributed to Cartwright and the Knickerbockers had in fact been developed by the older Gotham Club before the Knickerbockers' founding.[21]

The Cartwright Cup is awarded to the Hawaii state high school baseball champions each year.[22] Makiki Field has been renamed Cartwright Field.[23]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lloyd, J & Mitchinson, J: The Book of General Ignorance. Faber & Faber, 2006.
  2. 1 2 Ty Cobb: Safe at Home. Globe Pequot. 2008. ISBN 9780762744800.
  3. ↑ "Alexander Cartwright". Alexander Cartwright.
  4. ↑ Alice Low and John O'Brien (2009). The Fastest Game on Two Feet: And Other Poems About How Sports Began. Holiday House. ISBN 9780823419050.
  5. ↑ "Year In Review : 1953 National League". Baseball Almanac.
  6. ↑ Jim Lilliefors (2009-07-01). Ball Cap Nation: A Journey Through the World of America's National Hat. Clerisy Press. ISBN 9781578604111.
  7. 1 2 3 Monica Nucciarone. "Alexander Cartwright". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  8. ↑ The American Game
  9. ↑ Live All You Can: Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Invention of Modern Baseball By Jay Martin
  10. ↑ The identification of Cartwright in this image is at least controversial. Articles seriously challenging this identification can be found in Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) newsletters at "Just Another Misidentified Baseball Photo?". Society of American Baseball Research. October 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2012. and at " So, are there any Knickerbockers in that 1840’s half-plate daguerreotype?". Society of American Baseball Research. March 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Alexander Cartwright: First Modern Game of Baseball 1845". Baseball Historian.
  12. ↑ Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game. Random House Digital, Inc. 2008-12-24. p. 21. ISBN 9780307494061.
  13. ↑ http://protoball.org/1845_Knickerbocker_Rules
  14. ↑ Thorn, John, Baseball in the Garden of Eden New York: Simon & Schuster (2011)
  15. 1 2 Nucciarone, Monica (2009). "Chapter 2: The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York". Alexander Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 12–22. ISBN 978-0-8032-3353-9.
  16. ↑ "Cartwright, A.J. office record". state archives digital collections. state of Hawaii. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  17. ↑ Robert William Henderson (1947). Ball, bat and bishop: the origin of ball games. Rockport Press.
  18. ↑ Thorn, John, Baseball in the Garden of Eden (2011)
  19. ↑ Thorn, John (March 12, 2011). "Debate Over Baseball's Origins Spills Into Another Century". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  20. ↑ Bailey, James. "Dueling Cartwright biographies offer differing views of his contributions". Baseball America. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  21. ↑ Thorn, John. Baseball in the Garden of Eden (2011)
  22. ↑ "Cartwright Cup for state baseball champ unveiled today". The Honolulu Advertiser. May 6, 2007. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  23. ↑ "The Father of Baseball". The Hawaiian Historical Society. Retrieved August 28, 2013.

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