Cartwright, Alexander

Alexander Cartwright

1820-1892

American baseball pioneer

Ask baseball fans the name of their sport's founder, and most will answer "Abner Doubleday." Yet it was not the Civil War general who laid down the groundwork for America's most popular game. The man who did perhaps the most to formalize and codify modern baseball was one Alexander Cartwright, a New York City banker. Neither Cartwright nor Doubleday can truly be credited with inventing baseball—which traces its roots back to a centuries-old English children's game known as "rounders"—yet it was Cartwright who founded the first official baseball club, the Knickerbockers, in 1845, and who published the first set of formal rules for the game in September of that year.

Formed First Recognized Baseball Team

Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr., was born on April 17, 1820, in New York City. The son of a marine surveyor

and former sea captain, Cartwright grew up in lower Manhattan, where as a boy he played the common children's game known alternately as rounders, base ball, or town ball. He attended school until age 16, when he left to become a bank clerk, and later, a volunteer firefighter. In 1842 he married Eliza Ann Gerrits Van Wie, who hailed from an old Dutch family near Albany.

A strapping, unusually tall man for his day, at 6 feet 2 inches, Cartwright was popular among a crowd of young New York bankers, lawyers, and businessmen, who on fair days after work gathered to play rounders at Parade Ground meadow or at Madison Square. In 1845, 25-year-old Cartwright—known to his friends as Alick—proposed that the group create an organized club. Thus was born the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, named after a disbanded firefighter company where Cartwright had once volunteered. Cartwright was named secretary and vice-president when the club formed in September of that year.

Perhaps more important than Cartwright's creation of the club was the Knickerbockers' official organization of the game with a constitution and bylaws. The bylaws—some 14 written rules created by Cartwright and his club mates—transformed baseball from a folk sport, with rules passed down orally over the centuries, to a formal, structured sport. The rules also made the game less rough-and-tumble and more genteel, since they abolished the common practice of soaking or plugging—that is, hitting the runner with the ball to make an out. This change made it safer for players to use a harder ball, which led to a faster, more exciting game. Other bylaws Cartwright instituted included the diamond-shaped field, the rules of fair and foul territories, and the 90-foot distance between each of the four bases.

Cartwright is often credited with establishing the rule that nine players compose a baseball team; however, the Knickerbockers were not consistent with their number of players, which, in a given game, ranged from 8 to 12. The position of shortstop—a player between the second and third bases, whose job was mainly to relay throws from the outfield to the infield—was not instituted until 1849. Nor was it Cartwright who established the nine-inning game length, which was created by a convention of players in 1857. In the early days of the sport, the game would end when the first team scored a winning 21 runs.

The first organized baseball team needed an opponent, so the Knickerbockers advertised for games. Stepping up to the challenge was a team called the New York Nine. Since lower Manhattan had become increasingly more urban and there was little space for a baseball diamond, the players had sought out new territory across the Hudson River in then-rural Hoboken, New Jersey. To get there, both clubs crossed the river by ferry, then walked to Elysian Fields, a picturesque park and a popular holiday destination. It is Elysian Fields that takes credit for hosting the first recognized modern baseball game, between the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine, on June 19, 1846.

Spread the Rules of the Game

Cartwright did not remain with the Knickerbockers very long. In March of 1849, the 29-year-old bank clerk, like so many other Americans, followed the California Gold Rush in hopes of making his fortune out west. Yet he did not abandon baseball; rather, he took it with him. A kind of Johnny Appleseed of the sport, Cartwright helped spread the game as he traveled across the country by train, covered wagon, and foot. From Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to the Midwest to San Francisco, he taught the sport to locals and encouraged the creation of formal clubs.

Though the game spread first through the northeastern United States, within 15 years baseball had taken root across the country. While Cartwright played a role in its burgeoning popularity, it was the American Civil War (1861-1865) that prompted the game's growth as a national pastime. Union soldiers formed teams and Confederate prisoners picked up the rules of the game; when the soldiers returned home, they took the sport with them.

When Cartwright arrived in San Francisco, the Gold Rush was over; he stayed only six weeks, but in that short time he did much to spread the word about baseball in that city. Deciding to return to New York, he boarded a ship set to sail across the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. Yet water travel did not suit Cartwright, who fell ill and disembarked at the Sandwich Islands-known today as Hawaii. Regaining his health and falling in love with the lush islands, he decided to stay. Cartwright's wife and children joined him in 1851.

Naturally, Cartwright taught baseball to the islanders and formed Hawaiian baseball clubs—which explains why the sport took hold in Honolulu even before it became established in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago. Cartwright is also credited with giving Honolulu its first volunteer fire department, of which he served as chief for ten years. The enterprising man quickly grew prosperous, becoming one of the Honolulu's leading bankers and merchants, and managing the finances of Hawaii's royal family. Cartwright was also active in local government. Among his contributions as a civic leader were the founding of the Hawaiian city's first library and first major hospital.

Chronology

1820	Born on April 17 in New York
1842	Marries Eliza Ann Gerrits Van Wie
1845	Organizes first formal baseball club, the Knickerbockers; draws up first set of baseball rules on September 23
1846	Plays in first recognized modern baseball game, between the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine, on June 19
1849	Leaves New York in March to seek gold in California
1849	Leaves California by boat; arrives in Hawaii in late August
1851	Wife and children join him in Hawaii
1852	Introduces baseball in Honolulu
1892	Dies in Honolulu on July 12

Awards and Accomplishments

1938	Inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame for originating the sport's basic concepts
1953	Acknowledged by the U.S. Congress to be the founder of modern baseball
1956	City of Hoboken, New Jersey, dedicates a plaque to Cartwright for his organization of the first official baseball games at Hoboken's Elysian Fields

Recognized for Contribution to Sport

When he died on July 12, 1892, Cartwright was one of Honolulu's most respected citizens. He never returned to the mainland United States to see just how popular his beloved sport had become—and in the world of baseball, his contribution was largely forgotten. It was not until 1938, when a special committee of baseball veterans reviewed his journals, that Cartwright gained proper recognition. That year, he was elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame for originating the sport's basic concepts. Even today, only the most well-versed sports historians and enthusiasts recognize Cartwright as the true father of modern American baseball.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Peterson, Harold. The Man Who Invented Baseball. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.

Periodicals

"Honolulu's Link to Baseball History." Travel Weekly (June 19, 1997): 29.

"Time Trip." Current Events (December 7, 2001): 2.

Other

"Alexander Cartwright." BaseballLibrary.com. http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/C/Cartwright_Alexander.stm (October 4, 2002).

"Alexander Cartwright." Baseball Hall of Fame. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Cartwright_Alexander.htm (October 3, 2002).

Biography Resource Center. Detroit: The Gale Group, 2002.

"Cartwright, Alexander J." Hickok Sports.com. http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/cartwrigs.html (October 4, 2002).

Sketch by Wendy Kagan