Cartwright, Alexander J.
Baseball
b. April 17, 1820, New York, NY
d. July 12, 1892
Although Cartwright, not Abner Doubleday, is enshrined in the Hall of Fame as the "inventor" of baseball, some doubt has been raised about exactly what his role was in creating the modern version of the sport.
Cartwright joined the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York in 1845. The club played a version of rounders or base ball called the "New York game" to distinguish it from the "Massachusetts game," which was also sometimes known as town ball.
Both were folk sports in the sense that rules were passed on orally, not written down. Cartwright suggested that the Knickerbocker club should be formally organized with a constitution and by-laws, which were the sport's first written rules.
The Knickerbocker rules of 1845 changed baseball in two major ways. First, the idea of fair and foul territory was established; previously, the batter could run the bases any time he hit the ball, as in cricket. Second, putting a runner out by hitting him with a thrown ball, the usual practice at the time, was disallowed.
The existing records don't indicate how important Cartwright was in drawing up these rules. He was one of four club members assigned the task. However, when a commission decided in 1907 that Doubleday had invented baseball in Cooperstown, NY, in 1838, Cartwright's son protested. Ironically, the Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 1938, the centennial of the sport according to the Doubleday legend, yet Doubleday wasn't enshrined and Cartwright was.
Cartwright didn't belong to the Knickerbocker club for long. He left New York on March 1, 1849, to join the gold rush, went to Hawaii later that year. He spent the rest of his life in Hawaii, teaching baseball throughout the islands.