1884 Altoona PA (Altoonas, Unions, Browns)
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:
March 1884: “Contracts for [the Altoona] suits have been placed with the fashionable home tailor. A contact has been made with the home dealer for shoes, and indications point to the fact that the Altoona Unions will don a regulation suit of one color and style for an ‘off duty’ and traveling suit.” From The Sporting Life, March 12, 1884. Research from Ed Morton.
Late March or early April 1884: “The suits for the [Altoona] Unions this season will be of the very best quality. White is the chosen color trimmed in red, belt and stockings to match; the shirt has a shield front with a large letter A in red; finest calf high-cut ball shoes. Each player is provided with a fine worsted and silk cardigan, scarlet or red in color. This is the field suit. All players will be dressed in a uniform traveling suit and for off duty; color yet undecided, but more than probable a dark seal brown will be adopted.” From The Sporting Life, date not recorded. Research and approximate date of article from Jon Dunkle. Note, it is unclear if the brown traveling suit was a dress suit or a second team uniform.
April 1884: “When it came to the [Altoona] wardrobe, money was no object. The team boarded the train west for the season opener in Cincinnati [played on April 17, 1884] decked out in expensive brown dress suits ($35 apiece) with matching derby hats ($8 each). Their uniforms (two per player at $18 apiece) were white with red trim with a large letter “A” inside a shield stitched onto the front. They couldn’t play without caps, of course ($10 each). And if they got chilly on the bench, they could slip into a fancy silk cardigan sweater. ‘They will look like dudes,’ crowed a writer from the Altoona Tribune.” From James Forr, SABR Bio Project Teams Project. Also from Forr: “Referred to as the Altoona Mountain City by many historians, [the team was] more often nicknamed the Browns or the Unions in contemporary newspaper accounts.” Game date from retrosheet.org.
April 1884: “The suits of the Altoona base ball players will be made of granite cloth, seal brown, and will cost $35 each. They will wear brown hats.” From the Pittsburgh Chronicle & Telegraph, April 11, 1884. Research from Andy Terrick. Note, it is unclear if the brown traveling suit was a dress suit or a second team uniform.
April 1884: “The Altoonas are billed to play game here tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday and Monday next. Their uniforms consist of white flannel suits, with scarlet trimmings, belt and stockings, and white flannel cardigans and caps.” From the St. Louis Republican, April 23, 1884. Research from Justin Mckinney.
April 1884: “The Altoona Club wear uniforms of white flannel with white cardigan jackets, scarlet belts and stockings and with white caps trimmed with scarlet.” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 24, 1884. Research from Richard Hershberger.
Team genealogy: Coming soon
Rendering posted: September 8, 2016
Diggers on this uniform: Andy Terrick, Ed Morton, Jon Dunkle, Justin Mckinney, Richard Hershberger,