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Henry Chadwick

Since he was known as the "father of baseball", he would definitely fall into the founding fathers section in baseball history. He was voted into the baseball Hall of Fame in the 1938, mostly as a sportswriter, baseball statitician and historian. Chadwick was baseball's first and only sportswriter for many decades.

Born in 1824 in Exeter, England, Chadwick was a big follower of cricket. He came to America early in life and after watching a highly contested game of "base ball" between two New York clubs, he became and instant fan. He immediately wanted to make baseball, America's national sport (like cricket at the time in England) and he would spend the rest of his life towards meeting that goal. He edited the first baseball guide, "The Beadle Baseball

Player" and he would help edit annual baseball guides for the rest of his life. In 1867, Chadwick accompanied the Washington National Club on their famous tour across the country. During that journey, Chadwick saw the great match between Washington and the Forest City Club from Chicago. This would turn out to be the only loss for Washington, losing 29-22 to a Forest City club led by a seventeen year old Al Spalding. Chadwick and Spalding would become good friends throughout their lives, although Chadwick always did disagree with Spalding's "Doubleday theory" on the inventor of baseball.

Henry Chadwick was one of the great early leaders of baseball and is also noted as the inventor of the baseball boxscore. He will always go down as one of the important figures in early baseball history.