Alexander Cartwright: The Life behind the Baseball Legend

Introduction: A Baseball Diamond at Madison Square

INTRODUCTION A Baseball Diamond at Madison Square Staring into the intersection of Twenty-seventh Street and Park Avenue in New York City, I hope to see an ethereal image of men in their early twenties sporting muttonchop whiskers and wearing long-sleeved white bib shirts tucked into pin-striped pants with suspenders to hold them up. I watch and concentrate. At least in my mind’s eye I can see the men gather about the dirt, while one steps off the parameters of their playing field. Madison Square Park once extended to this corner and beyond between 1814 and 1845.1 Park Avenue, in its previous incarnation, was Fourth Avenue. I imagine one lanky gentlemen square up to pitch while his fellow fielders shuffle in anticipation and the batter waves a wooden stick, eager for the ball. In reality, yellow taxi cabs zoom through the streets around me, and people, some still wearing winter coats against the cool morning of early spring, walk in every direction. No one is playing games. The New York Life Building, with its pointed golden xxii dome and neogothic architecture, occupies an entire city block, with Park Avenue on one side and Madison Avenue on the other. Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh streets encase it on the other sides. The imposing building has stood on this site since it was completed in 1928. In 1837, the site was occupied by the Union Depot of the New York and Harlem Railroad Company. The harsh shrill of a police siren echoes between the highrise buildings as the car speeds down Park Avenue. The sight and sound prompt me to turn in its direction. I walk down Park 34th Street 31st Street 26st Street 23rd Street Seventh Avenue ( Fashion Avenue ) Sixth Avenue ( Avenue of the Americas ) Fifth Avenue Madison Avenue Fourth Avenue ( Park Avenue ) Lexington Avenue Third Avenue B r o a d w a y Sunfish Pond Present Day Madison Square Park Madison Square Park, adapted from Berman, Madison Square. This diagram shows Madison Square Park in three phases: 1) In 1807 its boundaries stretched from Twenty-third to Thirty-fourth streets and from Seventh to Third avenues. 2) In 1814 its boundaries fell between Twenty-third and Thirty-first streets and between Sixth and Park avenues. 3) In 1845 and up to the present day, the park extends from Twenty-third to Twenty-sixth streets and from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue. Murray Hill (since leveled) was located at what is today Park Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, though the district encompasses a much broader area that includes Lexington Avenue to somewhere between Madison and Fifth avenues (approximately). Sunfish Pond no longer exists. xxiii INTRODUCTION Avenue, but by the time I reach Twenty-sixth Street, the sound of the emergency is long gone. Walking west on Twenty-sixth brings me to the corner of the current Madison Square Park. Just beyond the park I can see the famed Flatiron Building, completed in 1902, with its narrow end pointing in my direction. In the northeast corner of the park is a colorful playground where the laughter and shouts of children mingle with the traf- fic noise around me. A park bench seems to be waiting, so I stop and rest. From this vantage, I look up between the still winterbare tree branches at the tall buildings. It may be early spring, but a small bite of leftover crisp winter cold pierces through the morning sun, which casts fresh rays across the massive buildings that envelop the park. Madison Square Park is surrounded by historical structures. From early childhood, I have been fascinated by historical landmarks and the stories behind them. Not to be confused with present-day Madison Square Garden, this six-acre public park in lower Manhattan was named after James Madison, fourth president of the United States. During the 1830s and 1840s, it was here, and in green spaces like it in other East Coast cities, that the game of baseball developed into the form we know today. A child’s scream interrupts my thoughts. I look to the playground with concern, but giggles replace the frantic shriek, and I shake my head with relief that no one was hurt. It was just play. My father, a first-generation Italian American, instilled in me an interest in the past. My Italian grandparents came to America via Ellis Island in New...