He was the founder of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club and he would go on to invent the game that is widely still known today as the game of baseball. Alexander Cartwright was born in 1820 and today, he's still considered the "founding father" of the game of baseball.
It is hard to study the history of Alexander Cartwright outside of the game of baseball. It is as if the man's entire life revolved around the game that he used to play when he was a fireman. As a bookseller and volunteer fireman in Manhattan, Cartwright's game was called the "town game".
From the game's first published rules for the Knickbocker Club of New York to Alexander's eventual election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cartwright's world revolved around his sport. He was ultimately responsible for the rapid growth of the game in the 1800s.
Alexander Cartwright is believed to be ultimately responsible for the designing of the baseball diamond-shaped field. The initial drawings of such a field were credited to Cartwright.
The 1842 Knickerbocker Baseball Club was actually founded by a fire engine company and Alexander Cartwright. When Cartwright moved across country to mine for gold in California, he took the game of baseball everywhere he went from one town to the next. That was in 1849. By 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings would become known as the first professional baseball team and soon the game was America's favorite way to "pass the time" in sports.
California didn't appeal to Alexander Cartwright so he moved to Hawaii where he established one of the first Hawaii baseball organizations. Cartwright's rules and original town game bylaws were the foundation used for both the American and National Baseball Leagues today.
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