HONOLULU — When an animated Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi proclaimed last week that Cartwright Neighborhood Park in Makiki is the oldest continuously used baseball field in America, he told the gathered crowd of about a hundred that he anticipated some skepticism on the continent.
Blangiardi, standing at a podium in the Cartwright outfield Thursday, shared that his staff and a group of baseball enthusiasts had unearthed proof in the form of old family letters and documents that indicated that Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. marked off the baseball diamond there in 1852 — some 26 years before the widely accepted record-holder, Fuller Field in Clinton, Mass., came to be.
[Note: See below for more photos of the Cartwright Neighborhood Park dedication of a new sign proclaiming it as America's oldest continuous baseball field.]
“You know how hard that's going to be for people to comprehend on the mainland, to get the heads around that?” Blangiardi said with a smile.
The city unveiled a large sign on the field's cage near the Keeaumoku Street overpass: "Historic Cartwright Field, Est. 1852, The Oldest Active Baseball Field in America." The great-great-granddaughter of Cartwright, Anna Cartwright, traveled from California for the occasion. The Royal Hawaiian Band played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and about a dozen uniformed area youth baseball players were on hand.
Blangiardi, a former University of Hawaii football player and broadcaster and a noted sports enthusiast, spoke with gusto on what he felt was a missed chance for recognition for the 50th state — in his view, now rectified.
“It's about setting the record straight and honoring a legacy that has stood the test of time,” Blangiardi said. “It's about getting the respect that this field deserves in the history and the lore of America's pastime.”
The Guinness Book of World Records lists Fuller Field (1878) as the oldest baseball diamond in the world, and oldest field in continuous use.
Matt Kobus, a Fuller Field Commission member, told 7 News WHDH in Boston last week that he stands by his field’s distinction.
“Until the Guinness World Records certifies Cartwright Park as being the oldest baseball diamond in continuous use, Fuller Field is going to hold that title,” Kobus told the station.
Labatt Park in London, Ontario, has a competing claim as the world’s oldest field dating to 1877. Guinness designates Labatt as the oldest baseball field.
Plenty has been written about the dueling claims and faded records. Historic Towns of America notes that Labatt Field was closed for a year due to flooding in 1937, and that its home plate was moved, calling into question its continuous use.
Local baseball aficionados have long suspected that Cartwright Field had a claim, but lacked the proof to substantiate it.
Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., often referred to as the “Father of Modern Baseball,” remains a revered figure in Hawaii. The native New Yorker and member of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club crossed the fledgling U.S. to the west on a wagon train, spreading the game of baseball as he went in the 1840s, then sailed out to the islands and arrived in late 1849.
He became the Honolulu Fire Department’s first appointed chief — HFD Chief Sheldon Hao was among the speakers to laud Cartwright on Thursday — and was a trusted advisor to members of the Hawaiian monarchy.
Cartwright is credited with creating many of the foundational rules of the modern game, including 90 feet between bases, nine innings of play and nine players in action. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.
He died in Honolulu in 1872 and was buried at Oahu Cemetery in Nuuanu, where his granite monument is something of a shrine for baseball diehards. He still has a dedicated group of supporters, the Friends of Alexander Joy Cartwright. They helped inspire Blangiardi’s team in 2024 to prove the field claim, the mayor said.
Blangiardi said he dispatched his communications director Scott Humber to scout Fuller Field ahead of Thursday’s announcement.
Korky Gallagher, a spokesman for Friends of Alexander Joy Cartwright, told Spectrum News there is no malice behind the announcement as he stood beneath the sign, but said "let 'em come at us" to any counter claims.
“If you're the first guy, sometimes you're the first guy, until the second guy comes along,” Gallagher said. “Well, they put down their date, 1878, and we know (in) 1852 this was put here.”
A few minutes earlier, he told attendees, “We don't look for trouble. But we know what we know, and we knew that Cartwright and his 9-year-old son walked off this park in 1852. We knew it. It was passed down through the generations.”
Jay Martin, a professor at Claremont-McKenna College in California and an author of baseball literature, did much of the legwork of finding old documents in Hawaii state archives, Andy Sugg, Blangiardi’s chief of staff, told Spectrum News.
“He did exhaustive research and determined that Cartwright walked off this field after playing a game in 1852 and baseball has been played on this field ever since,” Sugg said. “So (we’re) planting our flag is the oldest base active baseball field in America.”
Anna Cartwright expressed gratitude to all involved for making her great-grandfather’s 205th birthday — proclaimed by Blangiardi as Alexander Joy Cartwright Day — one to remember.
“Everyone in the baseball community, the players, all you guys who played a role in preserving the park, keeping it running, playing the games and walking in my great granddad's footsteps,” she said. “It's a great tribute to my great grandfather's field, and it also reflects a great deep connection our family has with this aina and community.”
Correction: Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Baseball" not the founder.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.