1868 Union, Lansingburgh NY (Unions, Troy Haymakers)

This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style only. Color information is unknown and the uniform is rendered in values of gray. Minor details may also be undocumented or difficult to determine and an educated guess is made to complete the rendering.

Rendering accuracy:Year: undocumented    Team: documented

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A

Dated circa 1868. Date of 1868 may be suggested by fact that there exists other known photos of this team dated 1867 and 1869. Photo A also included three unidentified players who were not in either of these other two team photos. An 1868 date may also be suggested by player Craver, who wore a mustache in this photo. Craver also wore a mustache in the 1869 team photo, but had no mustache in photos from 1866 and 1867. Players wore a light gray or light-colored uniform in this photo with a white cap, white belt and white shoes. The cap had a star on top and possibly a patent-leather visor. The shirt had a shield bib with a band of white trim, white buttons and an old-English letter “U” in the middle. Six of the ten players in this photo wore their bib unbuttoned and flapped open. The pants had white buttons at the cuffs. This photo may have been one of the earliest to show a team mascot. This photo also was a composite of two separate images that had been joined together. This version of the photo may have been unfinished as the seam between the two sections had not been retouched.

Standing, from left: C Penfield (66-70), M King (67-69, 72), C Flynn (66-69, 71), unidentified, S King (66-72), B McAtee (66-69, 72), B Craver (66-71), unidentified, unidentified and unidentified. Sitting: (unidentified), (unidentified) and (mascot). If the 1868 photo date is correct, the unidentified player standing fourth from left may have been H Davis (68), who played first base for Union for a portion of the 1868 season. The three unidentified players standing at right were most likely, in no specific order, J Bonker (or Barker, 68), R Rua (68) and J Ward (67, 68). Historian and author John Thorn has discovered US citizenship papers for Rua, in which the Cuban-born player was described in 1875 as standing 5-foot, 9-inches tall and having a high forehead, a straight nose, a small mouth, a round chin, a dark complexion and a long face. Though this description is very explicit, it is difficult to match it to one of the unidentified players in this photo. Years with team from Marshall Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (2000). Additional info on years with team and on player Davis from Peter Morris, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012). Image scan from Getty Images, who has dated this image as 1866.

Dated circa 1868. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed the shape of the shield bib and how certain players left the top corner of the bib unbuttoned.

Written documentation on this uniform:
June 1868: “The ‘Haymakers’ appeared in a new uniform at their recent match at Syracuse. A ‘Wright’ good one.” From the New York Daily Herald, June 24, 1868. Research from Tom Shieber.

Circa 1868, Union, Lansingburgh NY v. Mutual, New York, at Brooklyn, Union grounds, possibly September 17, 1868 and recounted in April 1887: “Shortly thereafter an old-fashioned hayrick [or hay wagon] was driven up to the players’ gate, and ten men [i.e., the Haymakers] got out and came through that gate. When they got on the grounds the crowd laughed till it cried. The team was composed of nine six-footers, who wore blue jean pants and shirts. The pants rolled up to the knees and the bare legs and feet looked tough as leather. On their heads they wore big straw hats, and in their hands they carried hay rakes.” From the Chicago Inter Ocean, April 24, 1887. This reminiscence included the game score of “something like 40 to 8 in favor of the Haymakers.” The date of the game was not given in this article but it is possible it was loosely based on the Union-Mutual game played on September 17, 1868, a game won by Union by the score of 48 to 11. Peter Morris in Base Ball Pioneers 1850-1870 (2012), when referencing this 1887 report, wrote that “there is no way to definitively disentangle truth from fiction in such accounts. The members of the club were most definitely not rural hayseeds, and if they indeed brought rakes to New York with them, it was part of an image they deliberately cultivated.” 1868 game date from Marshall D, Wright, The National association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (2000).

Team genealogy: Union, Lansingburgh NY, 1865?-1872
Union was formed in Lansingburgh, NY, in 1865 or 1866. Lansingburgh is located next to Troy, NY, and the Union club was often referred to as Troy or the Troy Haymakers. The Haymaker nickname originated in 1866 and may have derived from “hay raker”, a comment on the team’s rural roots, or reaction from one game when the team chose to play in bare feet for better traction. Union was commonly known as Troy when they played in the National Association (NA) in 1871 and 1872. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. The team folded after the 1872 season. Information from Peter Morris, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012).