1883 Chicago (Chicagos, White Stockings)
These renderings are based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No confirmed visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the renderings.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated 1883 to 1885. Portrait of B Sunday (83-87). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date range determined by comparing this photo to a similar portrait of player Corcoran, see photo B. Both photos had the same background and both players wore the same uniform. Based on both player’s time with the team, a date range of 1883 to 1885 can be determined. As the uniform shown does not match photos of the 1885 Chicago team, it could be suggested these portraits were made in 1883 or 1884. Player wore a white uniform in this photo, with a dark cap, a dark belt, and white stockings. Detail view showed that the cap had white trim around the edge of the bill and at the base of the crown. This uniform matched a newspaper description of one of the Chicago outfits from 1883. Years Sunday with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from SABR, Nineteenth Century Stars (1989), which credited the photo to the collection of Mark Rucker.
Photo B
Dated 1883 to 1885. Portrait of L Corcoran (80-85). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date range determined by comparing this photo to a similar portrait of player Sunday, see photo A. Both photos had the same background and both players wore the same uniform. Based on both player’s time with the team, a date range of 1883 to 1885 can be determined. As the uniform shown does not match photos of the 1885 Chicago team, it could be suggested these portraits were made in 1883 or 1884. Player wore a white uniform in this photo, with a dark belt, and white stockings. Detail view showed that the player tied his shirt laces in an “x” pattern. This uniform matched a newspaper description of one of the Chicago outfits from 1883. Years Corcoran with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from SABR, Nineteenth Century Stars (1989), which credited the photo to the collection of National Baseball Library.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
December 1882: “Committees [at a National League meeting] were appointed to make recommendations for the 1883 uniform and the 1883 championship schedule.” From Base Ball’s 19th-Century Winter Meetings, 1857-1900 (SABR, 2018), citing the New York Clipper, December 16, 1882. Research from Michael R. McAvoy. The uniform committee was most likely responsible for recommending and approving the stocking color for each team.
1883: “For uniforms for [National] league clubs, in the future, no two of them are to appear in the same colors. Red stockings are to mark the Boston Club; gray stockings, the Buffalo Club; white stockings, the Chicago Club; navy blue stockings, the Cleveland Club; brown stockings, the Detroit Club; blue and white check stockings, the Philadelphia Club; light blue stockings, the Providence Club.” From the DeWitt Base-Ball Guide, 1883, p. 29. Research from John Thorn.
1883: “Messrs. Buckley, Day and Wright were appointed to constitute [a uniform] committee, who reported in favor of the clubs named being permitted to wear colored stockings selected by them as follows: Boston, red; Chicago, white; Detroit, brown; Buffalo, gray; Cleveland, navy blue; Providence, light blue. Also of allowing New York and Philadelphia clubs to select their own colors prior to the commencement of the season, which should be distinctive and not in conflict with any of the colors selected by the above named clubs.” From the Spalding Guide 1883, p.101. Research from John Thorn.
April 1883: “The Chicagos will probably retain their white uniforms this season for professional games. Other colored suits are talked of for practice, and a suggestion has been made to try the effect of red pants and white stockings. This would give the men the appearance of zouaves.” From the Chicago Tribune, April 1, 1883. Research from Tom Shieber. The “Zouaves” were light infantry regiments of the French Army serving after 1830 in North Africa. In the United States, zouaves were brought to public attention by a drill company that toured nationally before the Civil War. Their distinctive uniforms included bright colors and baggy trousers. Zouave info from wikipedia, retrieved July 21, 2018.
April 1883: “The Chicago Club will wear white uniforms again this season, although there is a disposition to adopt red pants.” From The Sporting Life, April 15, 1883.
April 1883: “The Chicagos will have three field uniforms this season. One will consist of white stockings, white breeches, white shirt trimmed with red, and red cap; second, white stockings and breeches, shirt of red and white stripes, and white cap; and third, white stockings, red breeches, white shirt, and cap trimmed with red.” From the Cincinnati Enquirer, April 15, 1883. Research from Tom Shieber. Note, the mention of a red-and-white striped shirt in this report differed from the May and June reports from this same year which said the team wore red-and-black striped shirts, see below.
April 1883: “The uniform of the Chicago nine will be of three different kinds. One will consist of white shirts, white caps, and red belts; one of white breeches, white caps, trimmed with red, and red belts, and another of white shirts, white caps, red shirts and scarlet breeches.” From the Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1883. Research from Tom Shieber. Note, the Tribune seemingly made several omissions in this report. The first description did not mention a pant color; the second description did not mention a shirt color; and the third description listed two different colors for the shirt.
April 1883: “The Chicago are to be uniformed while on their travels in dark blue suits, exactly alike, and Derby hats. They had to fork over $60 apiece to the tailor.” From The Sporting Life, April 29, 1883. This report described the street clothes the team wore while traveling.
1883: “Spalding’s brainstorm for his Chicago White Stockings edition [in 1883] was tomato-red jerseys and knickers.” From John Thorn, Baseball In The Garden Of Eden (2011), referencing Preston Orem, Baseball (1883) from the Newspaper Accounts (Altadena, CA: self-published, 1967), 84.
May 5, 1883, Chicago v. Detroit, at Chicago, home opener: “The Detroits wore their new white uniforms, and the Chicagos came out flaming—red caps and knee breeches, white shirt and stockings.” From the Detroit Free Press, May 6, 1883. Research from Tom Shieber. Game date from retrosheet.org.
May 5, 1883, Chicago v. Detroit, at Chicago, home opener: “The Chicagos came on the field in their red and white uniforms […] while Capt. Anson ran up the championship flag of 1882. […] The red-breeched and red-capped Chicagos appeared rather oddly to the audience yesterday, so accustomed had the latter become to white suits. Some admired the new togs, while others said they much preferred the old.” From the Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1883.
Early May 1883, Chicago v. Detroit, at Detroit, opening series: “Mayor [William G.] Thompson, of Detroit, President of the club […] declared himself deeply grateful to President Spalding for not having introduced the Chicago turkey-cock uniform games here, for those fiery red pants would have thrown the esthetes [sic] of this Michigan metropolis into fits and broken up base ball forever.” From The Sporting Life, May 20, 1883. Chicago played at Detroit on May 1-3, 1883. Game dates from retrosheet.org.
Mid-May 1883: “By May 15th […] Chicago doffed its bright red uniforms and put on more modest outfits.” From Preston Orem, Baseball From Newspaper Accounts, 1883. No specific documentation provided by Orem. Orem passage from John Thorn.
May 1883: “The uniform of Chicago is very neat and tasteful—red and black stripe shirts, white pants and caps.” From the Cincinnati Enquirer, May 22, 1883. Research from Tom Shieber.
May 1883: “The uniform worn by the Chicagos […] consists of red-and-black striped shirt, and all the rest white excepting the red trimming of the cap. President Spalding had better stop right there, for he is not likely to improve upon this uniform.” From The Sporting Life, May 27, 1883. Research from Richard Hershberger.
June 16, 1883, Chicago v. Boston, at Boston: “The White Stockings appeared in their third change of uniform yesterday—white stockings and pants, with black and red striped shirt and cap.” From The Boston Globe, June 17, 1883. Research from Chuck McGill. Note that this report implied the team wore a striped cap with the striped shirt, other reports described that a white cap was worn wth the striped shirt.
Late June 1883: “It would be hard to find in any ‘old clo’ shop a worse looking uniform than the red and black striped shirts and flaring red trousers of the Chicagos as worn yesterday. But there’s ‘luck in ‘em’.” From the New York National Police Gazette, June 23, 1883, referencing the Chicago Herald.
July 1883: “The Metropolitan [American Association team] wear the Chicago uniform, and each man carries his private bat and bat bag, as Anson’s men do.” From The Sporting Life, July 1, 1883.
July 1883: “On the glorious Fourth the Chicago and Cleveland clubs played two games in Chicago. […] Eleven men were put in uniform by the home team [Chicago].” From The Sporting Life, July 8, 1883.
July 1883: “The announcement of the death of Charles J. Guth, which is reported by our Boston correspondent, will cause much regret. […] He was only 27 years old, and had been married but four months. For many years he had been in charge of the uniform department of A. Spalding & Bros., in Chicago, and for the last three months had held a similar position with Wright & Ditson of Boston.” From the New York Clipper, July 21, 1883. A similar report was published in the Boston Globe, July 15, 1883. Globe info from Sam Gazdziak, ripbaseball.com, who also adds that Guth was born 1856 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.
September 1883: “Poor Chicago! Four straight games lost for the second time this season. […] The Whites cannot win the championship now.” From The Sporting Life, September 17, 1883. This report utilized a team nickname of “Whites,” a shortening of “White Stockings.”
1883-1885, referenced in 1961: “A release from A. G. Spalding and Brothers, the pioneer sporting goods manufacturing and supply firm, reveals some interesting information on the evolution of the baseball uniform. […] The Chicago White Stockings of this period [1883-1885] were regally outfitted in a manner indicative of their preeminence. They had three sets of uniforms of the finest materials. The White Stockings wore wide pants and tight-fitting sleeveless jerseys with capital letters spelling out CHICAGO emblazoned across the front. Every man had his distinctively colored flap-top cap and they wore silk stockings no less.” From Bill Madden, “Bill Madden’s Sports Folio,” the Scottsbluff (NE) Daily Star-Herald, April 14, 1961. Similar reports were published in other newspapers around the country at the start of the 1961 baseball season. Note that, to date, no reports have surfaced of the Chicago team, circa 1883, wearing sleeveless shirts.
Team genealogy:
Chicago 1874-
Chicago reformed after the Great Fire of October 1871 and rejoined the National Association (NA) in 1874 and 1875 after a two-year absence. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. Chicago joined the National League (NL) at its formation in 1876 and the team has played in the NL every year since 1876. Information from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875, from baseball-reference.com, and from wikipedia.com.
1883 Chicago summary
Uniform: white, white stockings, red cap
First worn:
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Described: April
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Home opener report: yes, May 5 v. Detroit
Uniform: red and black striped shirt, white pants, white stockings and cap
First worn:
Photographed:
Described: April, May, June
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Supposition:
Variations: also worn with red pants
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Uniform: white shirt, red pants, white stockings and cap
First worn:
Photographed:
Described: April, May
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Supposition: cap style, shirt style
Variations:
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Rendering posted: July 21, 2018
Diggers on this uniform: Chuck McGill, Ed Morton, John Thorn, Richard Hershberger, Tom Shieber,