1888 Louisville (Louisvilles)
Left: This rendering is based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the rendering.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Center: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Minor details may be undocumented or difficult to determine. An educated guess is made to complete the rendering.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Right: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style only. An educated guess is made on uniform color and on minor details that may be missing or difficult to determine.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated 1888. Old Judge baseball card of S Smith (88). Full view at left, detail view at right. Year of photo can be confirmed as this was the only year Smith played for the team. Full view shows a maroon uniform with blue-gray stockings as described in newspaper accounts from this year. Detail view shows a maroon cap with light-colored horizontal bands and trim along the bill of the cap. Year Smith with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Photo B
Dated 1888. Old Judge baseball card of G Hecker (82-89). Full view at left, detail view at right. Year of photo can be confirmed as photo background appears to match that shown in the Smith card above. Detail view shows white lettering and lace ties on shirt, and light-colored stitching around the shirt placket and shirt pocket. Detail view also shows shirt slightly open at the collar. Years Hecker with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Photo C
Dated 1888. Old Judge cabinet card of P Browning (AA 82-89, NL 92, 93). Full view at left, detail view at right. Year of photo can be confirmed as photo background appears to match that shown in the Smith card above. Detail view shows light-colored stitching on shirt pocket, and shirt open at the collar. Years Browning with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Library of Congress.
Photo D
Dated 1888. Old Judge cabinet card of S Stratton (AA 88-91, NL 92-94). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date can be confirmed as photo background appears to match that shown in photo A. Detail view shows version of shirt with detachable sleeves. Years Stratton with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Library of Congress.
Photo E
Dated May 25, 28 or 29, 1888. Year of photo can be confirmed by the appearance of player Smith, his only year with the team. Date range determined by the appearance of manager John Kelly, front row in street clothes. Location of photo was Brooklyn, Washington Park. On June 7, Kelly resigned as manager of the team, saying “it is beyond my province to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” The team record at the time was 10-26. The only contests played in Brooklyn when Kelly was the manager of the team was the four-game series, May 25-29. There was no game played on May 26 due to rain. The game on Sunday, May 27, was played at Ridgewood Park in Queens. The image above was likely the first in the series where Hall posed the players at the Brooklyn ballpark, and in the shade of the third base grandstand. Players most likely wore their maroon uniforms for this photo. However, the dark color of the belt and stockings are undocumented. Four players wore their shirt collars open and untied at the neck. The shortstop, White, sitting in the front row third from left, wore a short sleeve on his throwing arm and a long sleeve on the other.
Top row, from left: S Smith (88), G Hecker (82-89), P Browning (AA 82-89, NL 92, 93), J Kerins (85-89), P Cook (86-89, 91) and J Werrick (86-88). Front: T Ramsey (85-89), E Chamberlain (Lou AA 86-88, StL AA 88), B White (Lou AA 86-88, StL AA 88), (K Kelley, mgr 87, 88), S Stratton (AA 88-91, NL 92-94), C Wolf (82-91) and H Collins (Lou AA 86-88, Bro AA 88). Player IDs from photo. Years with team and Kelley info from baseball-reference.com. Date of Brooklyn series and Kelley’s last game from retrosheet.org. Kelly quote from the Louisville Courier-Journal, June 8, 1888, page 6. Image scan from Jay Miller, Joe Gonsowski and Richard Masson, The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company, 1886-1890 (2008). Original photo by Joseph Hall, Brooklyn.
Dated May 25, 28 or 29, 1888. Detail view of photo E. Detail view shows shirt lettering and light-colored stitching on collar, shirt placket and shirt pocket. Detail view also shows long sleeve and short sleeve versions of shirt.
Photo F
Dated April 19, 1888. This drawing of T Ramsey (85-89) was published in a newspaper on this date and may be a depiction of the uniform Louisville wore at the home opener in St. Louis on April 18. Image from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 19, 1888. Years Ramsey with team from baseball-reference.com.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1888: “The Louisville managers have decided on the new uniforms for the coming season. The boys will play their preliminary games in light maroon suits, with the name ‘Louisville’ across the breast. The regular suits will be white with wine colored stockings.” From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 5, 1888.
March 1888: “The Louisville management have decided on a new uniform for the coming season. The suits in which the season will begin are light maroon with gray trimmings, and the name Louisville across the breast. The others will be white, with wine colored stockings the same as used last year.” From the Atlanta Constitution, March 19, 1888. Research from Don Stokes and Graig Kreindler.
March 1888: “New and gorgeous uniforms will be the rage in the [American] association this spring. The Cincinnatis, Louisvilles, and Athletics will show particularly resplendent new clothes.” From the Pittsburgh Press, March 19, 1888, page 3.
March 1888: “The Louisville management will have two uniforms this season [1888]. One was received by J. W. Reccius and Bro. from Chicago yesterday [March 24, 1888]. […] The Hecker Base-Ball Supply Company has forwarded the orders and measurements for the Louisville club’s uniforms.” From the Louisville Courier-Journal, March 25, 1888.
March 1888: “The Louisvilles, not to be outdone by their rivals from Porkopolis [i.e., Cincinnati], will also don new togs next season. They will wear solid maroon-colored pants and shirts, with bluish-gray stockings, belts and caps, with the word ‘Louisvilles’ worked across the breasts of the shirts.” From the St. Paul Globe, March 25, 1888. Research from Don Stokes. Note, the photo documentation above suggests that the cap was not blue-gray in color and that the city name was not in plural form as reported here.
March 1888: “The Louisville players will […] don a new uniform, and one that has never been scene upon an American Association diamond. It will consist of solid maroon colored pants and shirts, with bluish gray stockings, belts and caps, with the word Louisville worked across the breast of the shirt. They will also have the white uniform with blue trimmings that was worn last season [1887].” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 26, 1888, citing the Cincinnati Commercial. Research from Gary and Oliver Kodner. Note, other reports suggest the white uniform had red stockings, not blue as reported here.
April 1888: “The Louisvilles, not to be outdone [by other American Association teams], will also down a new costume. They will wear solid maroon-colored pants and shirts, with bluish gray stockings, belts and caps with the word ‘Louisville’ worked across the breast of the shirts.” From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888. Research from Gary Kodner.
April 1888: “The Louisvilles have the most hideous uniforms, it is said, ever seen on a ball ground. They are made of a dirty looking red material, with white stripes, and give the men a dismal appearance.” From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 15, 1888, and from The Sporting Life, April 25, 1888. Sporting Life research from Richard Hershberger.
1888: “The new Louisville uniforms were of a hideous blood red material, far from pleasing to the eye.” From Preston D. Orem, Baseball From Newspaper Accounts 1888. Specific documentation not provided by Orem. Research from John Thorn.
April 18, 1888, Louisville v. St. Louis, at St. Louis, home opener: “The Louisvilles were clad in red suits with white stockings, and the two did not harmonize very well.” From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 19, 1888, page 8.
April 19, 1888, Louisville v. St. Louis, at St. Louis: “Hecker was put in the box. […] The weather made overcoats indispensable to spectators in the grand stand, and the ball-players shivered in their light[-weight] uniforms.” From the Louisville Courier-Journal, April 28, 1888, page 6.
May 1, 1888, Louisville v. Cincinnati, at Cincinnati, Cincinnati Park, home opener: “The Reds fell on the blue-ribbon team at the Cincinnati Park yesterday, and literally mopped up the grounds with the pride of Kentucky. […] It is dollars to dimes that some of the Louisvilles felt so bad last night that they were tempted to break their blue-ribbon pledge.” From the Cincinnati Enquirer, May 2, 1888.
May 25, 1888, Louisville v. Brooklyn, at Brooklyn, Washington Ball grounds: “The ‘Red Devils’ from Louisville put in a first appearance at the Washington Ball grounds yesterday [May 25] in unpropitious weather, a Scottish mist prevailing all the afternoon.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 26, 1888, page 1.
May 30, 1888, Louisville v. Baltimore, at Baltimore: “The Louisville Club came upon the Baltimore grounds yesterday for the first time this year, casting a lurid glare over the place by the intense brilliancy of their cardinal costumes. […] The visitors were in a dazzling blaze. The very brilliancy of their attire suggested the idea that, discouraged by many defeats, they had adopted a Chinese system of warfare, defeating their antagonists not exactly by hideous noises, but by a costume so bewildering and blood-curdling as to benumb their opponents.” From the Baltimore Sun, May 31, 1888. Research from Jerry Sudduth. A very similar report was researched by Preston D. Orem, Baseball From Newspaper Accounts 1888 (early 1960s). Specific documentation not provided by Orem. Orem passage from John Thorn.
July 18, 1888, Louisville v. Cincinnati, at Cincinnati: “At Cincinnati yesterday [July 18] the Louisville players wore crape in memory of the death of Amos Cross.” From the Louisville Courier-Journal, July 19, 1888, page 6. Cross, a former Louisville player, died July 16, 1888 in Cleveland at age 28.
August 1888: “Maroon is the color no base ball player likes. Some of the greatest failures were scored by teams who wore the maroon. St. Louis is a terrible example, while Louisville adopted the fatal color this season.” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 27, 1888, page 8.
1888: “From the St. Louis Republican—The [American] association clubs should follow the example of the [National] league and have uniforms made to fit the players. Baltimore and Louisville played in bathing suits that would fit anybody.” From the Buffalo Courier, December 30, 1888.
1888 Louisville uniform summary
Uniform: white, red caps and stockings
First worn:
Photographed:
Described: March
Material:
Manufacturer:
Supposition: cap style, shirt style and shirt lettering
Variations:
Other items: dark buttoned sweaters
Home opener report: no, April 28 v. Cincinnati
Uniform: red, white stockings
First worn:
Photographed: team photo from late May, portraits from year
Described: March-May
Material:
Manufacturer:
Supposition:
Variations: wore with dark stockings, may have worn light gray stockings
Team genealogy:
Louisville 1870s-1899
Louisville began as Eclipse, a semi-pro team in Louisville formed in the late 1870s. As Eclipse, they joined the American Association (AA) at its formation in 1882. The AA was a major league operating between 1882 and 1891. Eclipse was known as Louisville by 1884 and the team played in the AA through the 1891 season. The team joined the National League (NL) in 1892 when the AA and NL merged, and was disbanded after the 1899 season when the NL contracted from twelve to eight teams. Information from wikipedia and Ken Samoil.
Rendering posted: April 24, 2016
Diggers on this uniform: Don Stokes, Gary Kodner, Graig Kreindler, Jerry Sudduth, John Thorn, Ken Samoil, Oliver Kodner, Richard Hershberger,