The List: Class of 1878, 2/2: Alexander J Cartwright

Alexander J Cartwright (1820-1892), Builder
Eligible: 1871
Contributions: Led the splinter group of Gothams that founded the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 1845, promoted the club and recruited top players from New York; regular member until 1849.

In short, Alexander Cartwright did not invent baseball. Need it be restated: nobody did. 'It just growed,' wrote Henry Chadwick. Still, after the Doubleday myth was debunked in the opening decades of the 20th century, it was Cartwright alone who took credit for baseball's invention and earned a plaque in Cooperstown in 1938 following a lengthy campaign by his descendants and the baseball community to find an alternative to the debunked Doubleday myth. Still, we understand the influence of the Knickerbocker Club and rules today, and one of the most influential men involved (besides those already noted) is unquestionably Alexander Joy Cartwright.

A young Cartwright in New York

Cartwright was born 17 April, 1820, in New York City, the son of a merchant sea captain. He began working as a Wall Street clerk at 16, and later at the Union Bank of New York. He was a prominent volunteer firefighter, first with the Oceania Hose Company No. 36, then famously with Engine Company No. 12, nicknamed the Knickerbockers. Growing up, and later with many of his fellow firefighters, Cartwright passed his free time playing bat-and-ball games in the streets and parks of Manhattan, though he would later join the intramural squads of the professional class.

By the late 1830s he was playing base ball regularly, but in 1845 the lot he and some of his fellow firefighters were using to play ball in Manhattan was developed, and Cartwright and his club had nowhere to play. Cartwright found a park in Hoboken, NJ called the Elysian Fields, which were owned by famed inventor Col. John Stevens. Cartwright was allowed to use the field for baseball for the price of $75 per year, and to recoup the costs of the rental, Cartwright founded the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, named for his engine company. This marks, basically, the end of his impact on baseball, but he accomplished a great deed in doing so.

To start his club, Cartwright invited the most serious ballplayers from around the city, men committed to building the sport: Duncan F Curry, William R Wheaton, William H Tucker, Doc Adams. Cartwright enlisted them and charged them a high membership fee, ensuring their commitment. These men, now aligned to the cause of baseball, laid the foundations for the game that was codified in 1845 and grew to become a burgeoning national sport by 1857, at which point the Knicks stepped out of the spotlight as the NABBP took greater influence.

Older Cartwright as fire chief
in Honolulu

Cartwright would umpire the first recorded game of baseball in June, 1846, and stay involved with the Knicks until he left New York three years later. The Union Bank burned down in 1845, and Cartwright went into business as a book seller, printing and selling the published Knickerbocker rules in 1848. Still looking for a reliable source of income after his banking job, Cartwright joined the Gold Rush in 1849, continuing almost immediately to Hawaii, where he served as fire chief of Honolulu from 1850-1863 and allegedly advising Hawaiian royalty. He would die in 1892, six months before the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

Many myths abound, since debunked, about Cartwright's role in baseball history, myths that earned him that spot in Cooperstown: that he set the rules of 90 feet and 9 men a side, that he promoted baseball wherever he went across the country and into Hawaii, all of which are false. Still, Cartwright founded the Knicks, brought together baseball's most important people, and gave a jolt of life to a young game that would propel it rapidly into the nation's biggest sport.