Editing Alexander Cartwright (section)

{{short description|Baseball club founding member (1820–1892)}}
{{for|the academic|Alexander Cartwright (academic)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
| image       = Alexander Cartwright 1855 Daguerreotype.jpg
|alt=young man with beard
|caption=Cartwright in 1855
|birth_name=Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr.
| birth_date  = {{birth date |1820 |4 |17}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1892|7|12|1820|4|17}}
| death_place = [[Honolulu]], [[O'ahu]], [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]]
| highlights = 
* Known for invention of the modern game of [[baseball]] (disputed)
----
{{center|'''Signature:'''}}
[[File:Alxr J Cartwright 1882 signature.svg|frameless|center]]
|hoflink = National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
|hoftype = National
| hofdate   = [[1938 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|1938]]
| hofmethod = Centennial Commission
}}
{{HistBaseball nav|early}}
'''Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr.''' (April 17, 1820 – July 12, 1892) was a founding member of the [[Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York|New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club]] in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]] and he was sometimes referred to as a "father of [[baseball]]", the importance of his role in the development of the game has been disputed.

The rules of the modern game were long considered to have been based on the [[Knickerbocker Rules]] developed in 1845 by Cartwright and a committee from the Knickerbockers. However, later research called this scenario into question.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sabr.org/research/creation-alexander-cartwright-myth|title=The Creation of the Alexander Cartwright Myth|author=Hershberger, Richard|work=The Society for American Baseball Research|access-date=May 9, 2016}}</ref> The [[Doubleday myth|myth]] of [[Abner Doubleday]] having invented baseball was believed by many, but in [[Cooperstown, New York|Cooperstown]] in 1939, the myth was debunked. Cartwright was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a pioneering contributor to the game, 46 years after his death.<ref name="Ty Cobb">{{cite book|title=Ty Cobb: Safe at Home|publisher=Globe Pequot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7InOgXkqlAC&q=Alexander+Cartwright+and+US+Congress&pg=PR14|isbn=978-0-7627-4480-0|year=2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Alexander Cartwright|publisher=Official website of Alexander Cartwright|url=http://www.cmgww.com/baseball/cartwright/about/awards.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120040544/http://www.cmgww.com/baseball/cartwright/about/awards.html|archive-date=January 20, 2013}}</ref> Although it has been stated that Cartwright was officially declared the inventor of the modern game of baseball by the [[83rd United States Congress]] on June 3, 1953,<ref name="Ty Cobb" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kvo3gABjjoC&pg=PT42|author=Alice Low and John O'Brien|publisher=Holiday House|title=The Fastest Game on Two Feet: And Other Poems About How Sports Began|isbn=978-0-8234-1905-0|year=2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Year In Review : 1953 National League|publisher=Baseball Almanac|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1953n.shtml}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U--Zw_PYmEYC&pg=PA29|first=Jim|last=Lilliefors|publisher=Clerisy Press|title=Ball Cap Nation: A Journey Through the World of America's National Hat|isbn=978-1-57860-411-1|date=July 1, 2009}}</ref> the ''[[Congressional Record]]'', the ''House Journal'', and the ''[[United States Senate Journal|Senate Journal]]'' from June 3, 1953, did not mention Cartwright.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sabr.org/research/henderson-cartwright-and-1953-us-congress|title=Henderson, Cartwright, and the 1953 U.S. Congress|author=Berenbak, Adam|work=Baseball Research Journal|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|date=Fall 2014|access-date=May 14, 2016}}</ref>