The Father of Baseball
The man who really invented baseball spent the last forty-four years of his long life in Hawai‘i and laid out Hawai‘i’s first baseball diamond, now called Cartwright Field, in Makiki.
On his plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., Alexander Joy Cartwright is called “the Father of Modern Baseball.” He is credited with establishing the bases ninety feet apart and with decreeing nine innings in a game, three outs in an outing, and nine players to a side. Cartwright also organized the first baseball club, the New York Knickerbockers, and officiated at the first game under his new rules, in 1845.
In 1849, Cartwright decided to join his brother in China, where he was a tea merchant. Cartwright made his way across the country, introducing the new game of baseball as he went, and took ship in California for China. He discovered that he was prone to violent bouts of seasickness, and when the ship reached Honolulu, Cartwright got off and vowed never to set foot on the high seas again.
Cartwright spent the rest of his life in Hawai‘i, teaching baseball and operating various enterprises. He founded the Honolulu Fire Department and was its chief for ten years. A friend of the Hawaiian royal family, he filled several government posts and helped establish Queen’s Hospital, the Hawai‘i Library System, and the Pacific Club.
Cartwright’s life has been described in the book The Man Who Invented Baseball by Harold Peterson. Cartwright died in 1893 and is buried in Nu‘uanu Cemetery, where his grave has been visited by many famous players of the game he invented, including Babe Ruth.