1871 Troy NY (Haymakers, Unions)

Left & Center: These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style only. Color information is unknown and the uniform is rendered in values of gray. Important details may also be undocumented or difficult to determine and 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 and written documentation for color. Important details may be undocumented or difficult to determine. An educated guess is made to complete the rendering.

Rendering accuracy: Year: documented    Team: documented

Visual documentation on these uniforms:

Photos A and B

Left: Dated 1871. Collage of player portraits. Right: Attributed 1871. Picture scorecard of M McGeary (70, 71). Year of photo collage confirmed by appearance of players York, Conners, Pike and McMullen, all of whom only played for Troy in 1871. A July 1871 to early September 1871 issue date could be suggested for the picture scorecard as the top of the scorecard advertised an upcoming county fair, September 4-9, 1871. Both items utilized the same portrait photography, see the McGeary portrait at the top of the collage. Players wore a white shirt in these photos, with an old-English “U” centered on the chest under a short button placket. The “U” stood for Union, the team name. However by 1871 the team was also known as Troy.

Portraits in collage, clockwise from top: M McGeary (70, 71), C  Flowers (70,71), S Bellan (70-72), T York (71), N Conners (71), L Pike (71), S King (66-72), W Flynn (66-69, 71) and J McMullen (71). Center: B Craver (66-71). Player IDs from items. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from wikipedia.com.

Photos C, D and E

Left: Attributed 1871. Photographic scorecard of W Flynn (66-69, 71). Center & right: both dated 1871. Photographic scorecards of J McMullen (71) and T York (71). Year of issue determined by player’s time with the team. A July 1871 to early September 1871 issue date could be suggested for these scorecards as the top of each advertised an upcoming county fair, September 4-9, 1871. All three of these portraits were included in the team collage, see photo A. Player IDs from items. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from wikipedia.com.

Photo F

Dated 1871. Year of photo can be confirmed by the appearance of players Conners, Pike, York and McMullen, all of whom only played for Troy in 1871. Players wore a tight-fitting, collarless white shirt in this photo. The pants may have been light in color, possibly cream or light gray. The belt and stockings were also light in color. The collarless shirts may have been the same worn under the uniform shown in the player portraits, see photo A. It is speculation that the team was photographed wearing only their undershirts to reinforce their “haymaker” persona.

Top row, from left: N Conners (71), S Bellan (70-72), L Pike (71), M McGeary (70, 71) and W Flynn (66-69, 71). Front: T York (71), J McMullen (71), B Craver (66-71), C  Flowers (70,71) and S King (66-72). Player IDs from photo frame. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), from Peter Morris, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012), and from wikipedia.com.

Photo G

Hand-dated 1871. An uncropped version of this image showed two teams on a baseball field. A stereoscopic version of the image had the names of the two teams (Chicago and Troy) and the year of 1871 handwritten on the back of the image. If this identity was accurate, the photo can be dated October 21 or 23, 1871, and was taken at a game at the Troy ball ground. These were the first championship matches for Chicago after the Chicago fire destroyed the team’s uniforms. The Troy players (shown in cropped view above) were photographed wearing a white or light gray uniform, with a bib front outlined in dark trim and displaying the letter “T” for Troy. The belt and stockings were also dark. This may be the uniform described by a newspaper in May 1871 as being trimmed in blue cord, with green belts and blue stockings. Team identifications and year of photo were hand-written on the back of this image owned by Mark Rucker. Note that historian Preston Orem had the Troy dates as October 26 and 27, 1871, in his book, Baseball 1845-1881 From Newspaper Accounts.

Photo H

Dated 1871. Card featuring montage of player portraits, full view at left, detail view at right. Year card produced can be determined by the appearance of players York, Pike McMullen and Conners, all of who only played for Troy in 1871. These portraits were also used for other items promoting the team in 1871, see above. Many of the players wore their shirts unbuttoned at the neck.

Top row, from left: S King (66-72), T York (71) and L Pike (71). Second row: M McGeary (70, 71), B Craver (66-71), W Flynn (66-69, 71) and S Bellan (70-72). Third row: C  Flowers (70,71), J McMullen (71) and N Conners (71). Years players with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from wikipedia.com. Image scan from the SABR Rucker Archive.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
November 1870: “The Haymakers were allowed to change their club name from the Unions of Lansingburgh to the Unions of Troy.” From the New York Clipper, November 19, 1870. This report covered the convention of the New York State Association of Baseball Teams held in Albany, NY, on November 10, 1870.

March 1871: “[In the National Association] the Athletics will wear blue stockings, and also the Olympics. The Chicagoans will wear white stockings, and the Mutuals green. The Haymakers will wear blue checked stockings, and the Boston nine the red stockings.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 3, 1871. Research from Don Stokes.

April 25, 1871, Troy v. Athletic, Brooklyn, at Brooklyn, Capitoline Grounds: “The Troy nine were all on hand at the hour appointed, and looked well in their white breeches and blue stockings.” From the New York Tribune, April 26, 1871. Research from Ed Morton. This report also referred to the Troy team as “Union of Troy” and also as “Haymakers.”

May 1871: “The great match, Haymakers of Troy vs. Red Stockings of Boston, is to be played tomorrow [May 9th] on the grounds of the former club, between Troy and Lansingburg[h]. […] The Haymakers have received their new uniform and will don it for the first time at this game. The shirt, pants, caps, are made of white cotton flannel, trimmed with blue cord—with green belts and blue stockings.” From the Albany (NY) Evening Journal, May 8, 1871.

Circa 1871, referenced in 1884: “The St. Louis (Union Association) club of 1884 unveiled a dark blue traveling suit. When this was described as a first, however, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter claimed that Troy had unsuccessfully tried the same idea in 1871.” From Peter Morris, Game of Inches, (2006, 2010). This report was describing civilian dress for when the team was traveling. See the 1872 Troy page for more information on this reference.

Team genealogy: Troy NY, 1865?-1872
The Troy, NY, team originated as the Union club, forming in Lansingburgh, NY, in 1865 or 1866. Lansingburgh is located next to Troy 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 location, or reaction from one game when the team chose to play in bare feet to gain 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).