Who is the Real Father of Baseball?

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

The problem with calling Harry Wright the father of baseball is that the game was basically developed by the time Wright began playing. Yes, Wright did a lot toward bringing professionalism out in the open and toward developing the first professional league. But that had little if anything to do with the rules by which the game was played. As to who had the most to do with those rules, my vote would be the Knickerbockers because they codified the precise rules under which the game was to be played. While perhaps one could argue that every rule they adopted had at one time been seen before, but it was the precise combination and publication of these "existant" individual rules that became baseball as we know it today. As to which rule was the most significant, in my view it was the rule codifying fair and foul territory. That allowed baseball to become a spectator sport, which was the engine behind its explosive growth.

So if we're now talking about the Knickerbockers as being the most important force behind the development of the game, which Knickerbocker was most instrumental to the organization of the Club and the development of the Knickerbocker rules? While reasonable people can differ on this one, certainly Cartwight would be on anyone's short list of candidates. And certainly Chadwick and Wright would not. So among Wright, Chadwick and Cartwright, my vote would be Cartwright.

EDITED to add that if the Veterans Committee wanted to find a more constructive use of their time, they might spend less time looking at what the likes of Bowie Kuhn ever did and more toward some of the contributions of some of the original Knickerbockers (e.g., Adams, Curry, Tucker, Wheaton).