Presented is an Alexander Cartwright signature on a partial document, a general power of attorney, dated May 4, 1881. The “Father of Baseball” has signed his name “Alex. J. Cartwright Jr.” in broad strokes in black pen on the lower left side of the 3¼ x 8½-inch cut slip, which is the lower portion of a legal document, dated May 4, 1881. Cartwright was born Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. on April 17, 1820 in New York City. While working as a bank clerk and volunteer firefighter in New York, Cartwright started playing a popular game known as “town ball” or “base ball.” At the time it was simply a bat and ball played by locals with an informal set of rules that got passed along by worth of mouth.

Cartwright’s intense passion for the game led him to become a founding member of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 1845. Under his direction the Club drafted and adopted the first formalized set of rules for the game. These rules became the foundation for the modern game of baseball. Among the rules established by Cartwright were the way teams record an out, the diamond shaped layout of the field, and the designation of fair and foul areas. While Cartwright’s exact role in the history of baseball has been debated, it is clear he was one of the most important figures in the development of modern baseball. In 1938 Cartwright was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY as a pioneer of the game. His enshrinement plaque reads “Father of the Modern Game of Base Ball.” This item comes with a LOA from Beckett Authentication (A25526) and has been graded a GEM MINT 10 for the signature.

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