Baseball Inventor
There have already been myths surrounding who invented baseball. One of which is the story of Abner Doubleday, a former cadet from West Point. According to the narrative, it was in one of the fateful days of 1839 while living in Cooperstown, New York. However, a lot of critics have already said the account is fallacy after all. The rumor, so to speak, stemmed from a “panel of experts” who were appointed to trace the history of the sport. Such individuals actually based their findings on the testimony spoken by a certain Abner Graves. He was not entirely considered a credible witness where a year later, he even killed his wife.
Abner Graves was pronounced criminally insane where he spent the whole of his life inside a mental institution. As for Abner Doubleday, he already passed away leaving behind a lot of unread letters where it has been said that none of those mentioned about the sport. Many critics concluded that it would be difficult to believe the so- called baseball inventor who did not even spoke regarding the game. At this juncture, it is completely clear that he did not created what was dubbed as the national pastime in the United States way back in the twentieth century. Now you ask, who invented baseball?
Matter of factly, the sport evolved from a lot of various fields such as American Town Ball, Cricket and English Rounders. These have existed for how many centuries already but there is only a sole individual genuinely recognized as the baseball inventor. It is none other than Alexander Cartwright who established rules that are still fundamental to this modern day. He was born on the seventeenth of April 1820 in the highly urbanized metropolis of New York. In 1842, he became a member of the Fire Fighting Brigade in the community but a year later, he employed himself as a bank teller.
Alexander Cartwright’s career as a teller did not last long because the bank was burned down so he was forced to scout for another means of livelihood. With that, he and his brother, Alfred, established a store that featured books and stationeries. While he was still a member of the Fire Fighting Brigade, he was first exposed to the sport. He played an earlier version on an empty lot in Manhattan. However, the venue was no longer available so he looked for a different location. It was then that he found Elysian Field across New Jersey’s Hudson River. Since there was a rental fee of seventy- five dollars a year, this baseball inventor thought of concrete ways.
To continue the employment of Elysian Fields, Alexander Cartwright created an organization which he called Knickerbockers. He gave such name in honor of his years working in the Fire Fighting Brigade. By the twenty- third of September 1845, the group was official and together with that was the establishment of rules for each member to follow. This baseball inventor formulated a set of twenty guidelines which included having the distances of all the bases similar, three strikes per out, three outs every inning, addition of umpire and making of fair- foul territory. All of these are still observed up to this juncture.
The rules established by Alexander Cartwright ushered him to be hailed as the inventor of baseball. Those guidelines are actually considered as the backbone of the contemporary sport be it the Major League or the World Series. He indeed made a remarkable contribution which benefited other individuals. All the more he was able to provide assistance when he migrated to Hawaii. His stay in the island allowed him to become a notable citizen where he did not only introduced the game but also built a fire department and public library. Today, a street and stadium is named after him.