The Ball That Changed The World: The Story of Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., True Father of Baseball

In New York City in the 1830s and '40s, young Alick Cartwright grew up playing all kinds of games that used bats, balls and bases - but none of them were called baseball, for that game had not yet been created. In his teens, Alick and his friends ventured into other neighborhoods to play various ball games, including at the grassy squares at Madison Square and Murray Hill, and he earns a reputation as one of the best players in the city, whatever the game, be it cricket, rounders, barn ball, burn ball, stick ball, soak ball, goal ball, town ball or several "old cat" games - one old cat (one base), two old cat (two bases), etc. But one thing drove Alick crazy - every area played by different rules, sometimes using two bases, sometimes five, and the number of players on the field varied from just a few to more than 20. Sometimes a base was a tall wooden stick in the ground, sometimes a rock, sometimes a barrel top or just an old hat. Plus, the distances between bases were always different. Worse, because the rules were always different, they spent as much time arguing about the rules as playing the game. Alick played for one reason, to have fun, and arguing was not fun. After a particularly contentious argument that nearly comes to blows until Alick intervenes, he sits down with pencil, paper and ruler to create a more perfect game. After his best pal nearly dies after getting hit in the head by a thrown ball during a game of town ball, Alick writes down the rules of modern baseball. A year later, he organizes the first team, the Knickerbockers - as in the knickerbocker Fire Company, of which he was a member, as well as the first game and first scorecard. Three years later Alick is among the thousands of people joining the 1849 Gold Rush. He kept a meticulous journal along the way, a copy of which I obtained from Bishop Museum in Honolulu. I also obtained everything the Baseball Hall of Fame has on Cartwright, made several visits to the Hawaii State Archive in Honolulu. And while Alick is the focus of this book, the Oregon and California Trails and all of the other emigrants are co-stars. Growing up in Oregon, where the state seal includes oxen pulling a covered wagon and the state song includes the lyric "land of the pioneers," and having been born in the Gold Rush centennial year of 1949, I was always aware of the history and lasting influence of the Oregon Trail pioneers. It turns out that the California Trail, after it breaks off from the Oregon Trai