1875 Mutual, New York (Mutuals)

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

Visual documentation on this uniform:
None

Written documentation on this uniform:
April 1875: The Mutuals had discarded their green stockings and would wear chocolate-colored hose.” From Preston Orem, Baseball 1845-1881 From Newspaper Accounts (1961).

April 1875: “The New York Mutuals, in their first championship game, will don a new suit composed of brown-colored stockings, with white flannel breeches, shirt, cap, etc., trimmed with brown, the green-colored stockings have been found to be the cause of skin disease.” From the Philadelphia Times, April 24, 1875. Research from Ed Morton.

April 15, 1875, Mutual, New York, v. Chelsea, at Brooklyn, Capitoline Grounds: “On Thursday [April 15] the sun shone out, the snow disappeared, and at 3 P.M. the field was dry and green, and the Mutuals were on hand, dressed in uniform, ready for the game.” From the New York Clipper, April 24, 1875.

April 1875: “On April 28, [1875] the Mutual play the Centennial in Philadelphia, when they will don their new brown stockings for the first time.” From the New York Clipper, May 1, 1875. Note that this game took place April 30, 1875, not April 28. Game date from retrosheet.org.

1875, described in 1876: “The color of the uniform of the original Mutuals was brown—they did not wear breeches and stockings then, but pantaloons. Then they changed to a white suit with green stockings. The ‘wearing of the green’ not proving satisfactory, they changed again [in 1875] to the old Mutual color, to the extent of putting on brown stockings.” From the New York Clipper, April 29, 1876. Research from Richard Hershberger.

Team genealogy: Mutual, New York, 1857-1876
Mutual was formed in New York, NY, in 1857 and was named after the Mutual Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, New York. Mutual belonged to the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), baseball’s first organization operating 1857-1870. Mutual played in the National Association (NA), competing in every year of league’s existence, 1871-1875, and joined the National League (NL) in 1876 for its inaugural season. The club was removed from the NL before the 1877 season and subsequently disbanded. Information from Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Founders (2013).