Is Hawaii home to the oldest active baseball field in the country?
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A plaque in the baseball Hall of Fame recognizes Alexander Joy Cartwright as the father of the modern game, which the New Yorker introduced to Hawaii after he sailed here during the height of the California Gold Rush.
Records show that in 1852, he and his son marked out a baseball diamond in a park in Makiki.
”Once that was down, then people started to play baseball there. Of course, Cartwright was also there to teach people how to play baseball,” historian and Cartwright biographer Jay Martin said.
The site was eventually named Cartwright Field, and it has remained an active ballfield ever since Cartwright himself mapped out that first diamond in the dirt.
In the eyes of Anna Cartwright, his great-great-granddaughter, the field is hallowed ground.
“For all the kids in Hawaii that want to play baseball, they should go over there and walk the field. That should be their start,” she said.
On Thursday, the City and County of Honolulu will unveil a sign that designates Cartwright as the oldest active baseball field in America, countering the claim by Fuller Field in Clinton, Massachusetts, that is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Fuller started hosting games in 1878, but that was 26 years after Cartwright’s field came to be.
The city hopes to convince Guinness that Cartwright is the rightful record holder.
”A lot of people are going to be shocked by that,” Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said. “I think it’s a wonderful surprise and a little bit of sports trivia all thrown in there. I think people are going to go, ‘Wow! That’s really cool! Who would have thought that?’”
Besides introducing baseball to the islands, Cartwright made many other contributions to the land he loved. He was an adviser to Queen Emma and King Kalakaua. He helped to found the Honolulu Library. And he was Honolulu’s first fire chief, setting a standard that’s still followed today.
”Understanding our genealogy, our history, helps to guide us in our decision-making, in our empathy, in our care, in our love for this place and the people that we serve,” said Capt. Barney Hanson of the Honolulu Fire Department.
Alexander Cartwright died in 1892 at the age of 72. His gravesite in Nuuanu attracts baseball fans and students of the history of the game, who leave baseballs as tributes.
The city’s new sign at Cartwright Field is being unveiled on a special day: the anniversary of Cartwright’s birthday.
What do you think he would say?
”That it’s still there and it is still played on, and it is honored,” Ana Cartwright said. “Now it really is going to be a field of dreams. You build it, they will come. They’re still coming.”
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