1881 Troy NY (Troys, Trojans)
This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and partial 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 this uniform:
Photo A
Dated 1881. Photo date determined by appearance of player Hankinson, who only played for Troy in 1881. Players wore a white uniform in this photo that included a white cap and a white bib on the shirt. A newspaper reported in 1881 that the Troy uniform was to be the same as the previous year of 1880. The 1880 uniform was described as white with blue accents. The color of the stockings on the 1881 uniform is unknown.
Top row, from left: unidentified, J Cassidy (79-82), unidentified and B Ewing (80-82). Middle: P Gillespie (80-82), F Hankinson (81), B Ferguson (79-82, mgr), E Caskin (79-81) and R Connor (80-82). Front: M Welch (80-82) and B Holbert (79-82). Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Player IDs of Ferguson, Connor and Welch from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-Century Pictorial Committee. Player ID of Hankinson from Nigel Ayres and Bill Hickman. Ayers also suggests unidentified player in top row, far left, as E Gogswell (80, 82). Baseball-reference.com has this player ID as B Tobin (80). ID of Cassidy from J Cassidy from Carson Lorey. Possible IDs for player in top row, third from left, J Evans (79-81). Not shown: T Keefe (80-82). Scan from SABR, The National Pastime, Summer 2015 edition. Image from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Dated 1881. Two detail views of photo A. Detail views show the shape of the shirt bib and the style of lettering.
Dated 1881. This is an identical image to that shown above. This version showed a more complete view of the elaborate studio background and set.
Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1881: “The Troy City Club—The stockholders of this organization held a meeting March 19. […] It was decided to uniform the players [of 1881] in suits similar to those of last year [1880].” From the New York Clipper, March 26, 1881. Research from Ed Morton. Newspapers in 1880 described that the Troy uniform from that year was white with blue accents.
April 30, 1881, Troy v. Worcester, at Worcester, home opener: “Worcester Bags the Trojans in Opening 1881.” Headline from the Boston Globe, May 1, 1881. Use of the “Trojans” nickname for the Troy team.
Team genealogy:
Troy 1877-1882
Troy was organized in Troy, New York, around 1877 when it was first a member of the League Alliance (LA). The LA was group of independent small-city teams. This Troy team was initially known as the Haymakers, referencing an earlier team that played in Lansingburgh and Troy between 1866-1872. Troy joined the National League (NL) in 1879. The NL began in 1876. Troy played in the NL until 1882. After the 1882 season the team was removed from the NL and subsequently folded. –Information from wikipedia and baseball-reference.com.
1881 Troy summary
Uniform: white, light stockings
First worn:
Photographed: team photo from year
Described: March
Material:
Manufacturer:
Supposition: stocking color
Variations:
Other items:
Home opener report: no, May 5 v. Worcester
Rendering posted: July 1, 2018
Diggers on this uniform: Carson Lorey, Ed Morton, Mark Fimoff, Nigel Ayres,