Alexander Cartwright: The Life behind the Baseball Legend

14. “On the Sunny Plains of Hawaii nei”

FOURTEEN “On the Sunny Plains of Hawaii nei” In January 1923, three years before Sanford B. Dole died, he attended a graveside tribute to his late friend Alexander Joy Cartwright . The occasion was the arrival of Herb Hunter and his American All-Stars, who stopped in Honolulu while on a tour of Asia.1 In an article describing the tribute, The Star-Bulletin described how Dole briefly sketched Cartwright’s baseball career: how Cartwright organized the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York, stepped off the first diamond, drew up the first set of rules, and engineered the first game of organized baseball.2 Dole went on to describe how Cartwright went west with the gold rush of 1849, spreading the game as he went until he came to Hawaii. “I remember him well—a great big broad shouldered man who had no trouble in quelling a riot singlehanded one day on the docks here. Of course his playing days were over when he came to Hawaii, but I recall him many times being called on to settle disputes.” Dole ended by saying that 194 THE MYTHOGRAPHY OF A MAN it was owing to Cartwright’s efforts that baseball became a national game rather than being confined and remaining provincial to the eastern seaboard.3 We do not know how much of Dole’s speech reflected stories Cartwright told Dole directly, or how much he drew from the accounts told about Cartwright and baseball that had by then circulated. It was no doubt a bit of both. For many years the two men had mixed together closely, and by 1923, Peverelly, Spalding, and Spink had all published their books. And yet, the place where Dole would have had direct firsthand knowledge of Cartwright’s participation in baseball was in Hawaii. Dole’s father , himself a “baseball” enthusiast, was the first president of the Punahou School, where Cartwright’s sons played baseball. And one can imagine that Cartwright and Sanford Dole most likely did discuss baseball occasionally (at least, in between political discussions). Considering this, it’s striking that Dole would imply in his tribute that Cartwright did not himself play baseball in Hawaii . When Cartwright arrived in Hawaii, he was only twentynine years old. This would not have made him too old to play. Even if Cartwright had quit playing by the time he met Dole, wouldn’t Dole have heard, from Cartwright himself, about any Hawaii baseball exploits? And if Cartwright had played baseball after arriving in Hawaii, and in fact had been the first to do so, wouldn’t Dole have credited Cartwright with that honor in his 1923 tribute? Are we to believe, according to Dole, that in Hawaii, Cartwright’s participation in baseball extended only to settling disputes at games he attended? This chapter looks at what evidence there is connecting 195 “ON THE SUNNY PLAINS OF HAWAII NEI” Alexander Cartwright, baseball, and Hawaii. Did Cartwright, as legend has it, bring baseball to Hawaii, or was he merely a spectator to its arrival and growth in the islands? Inadvertently, Sanford Dole probably struck closest to the truth. In fact, there is no direct evidence of Alexander Cartwright’s participation —in any capacity—in baseball while he lived in Hawaii . An example of what might lead people to think that there is evidence can be found in a 1952 book, Heroes of Baseball, that mentions how Cartwright often visited schools throughout the territory of Hawaii explaining baseball with chalk and a blackboard . Yet, the book lists no sources and cannot be corroborated or verified.4 Most of the time, when the Cartwright name does appear in connection with baseball in Hawaii, it concerns his sons, Alexander III and Bruce. However, one of Alexander III’s classmates was once quoted in reference to his father. Alexander Cartwright III and Harry M. Whitney Jr. were both students at Punahou School during the 1869–70 academic year (as documented by that year’s catalogue). Decades later, in 1926, H. M. Whitney was interviewed for an article about baseball in the Honolulu Advertiser. Whitney was quoted as saying about Alexander III’s father: “He did a big thing in bringing that sport to the islands in the old days.”5 Did Whitney know something specifically about Alexander Cartwright, or was he by then just repeating the common assumption ? It’s hard to say, but Whitney...