1885 Brooklyn (Brooklyns)
These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style and partial written documentation for color. Some 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:
Photo A
Dated late July 1885 to September 1885. Year of photo confirmed by appearance of players Robinson and Hotaling, both of whom only played for Brooklyn in 1885. Date range of late July to September based on the appearance of player Peoples, who was released by Cincinnati on July 3 and was playing for the Brooklyn team in late July. Photo shows players wearing two different shirt styles. One is a lace-tie shirt and the other utilizes a bib front. The two shirt styles display different old-English letter fonts.
Top row, from left: J Cassidy (84, 85), H Porter (85-87), J Harkins (85-87), E Swartwood (85-87), B Phillips (85-87), A Terry (AA 84-89, NL 90-92), J McTamany (85-87) and C Robinson (85). Front: P Hotaling (85), B McClellan (85-88), D Oldfield (85, 86), G Smith (AA 85-89, NL 90, 97), G Pinkney (AA 85-89, NL 90, 91) and J Peoples (Cin AA 85, Bro AA 85-88). Player IDs from photo frame. Years with team and Peoples release info from from baseball-reference.com. Image from Mark Fimoff and Ken Samoil. Scan of image from REA Auctions.
Dated 1885. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed a faint old-English letter ‘B’ on right breast of most of the shirts shown. Because of the faint appearance, it was likely the color of the letter was light blue.
Dated 1885. Another detail view of photo A. Note that the player in top right of detail view wore a bib-front shirt and a differently-styled letter “B” as compared to others in photo. This player was new to the team in 1885 and may have worn a Brooklyn uniform from the previous year of 1884. Seated player in lower center of detail view had a shirt pocket on the left breast.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
April 1885: “Manager [Charlie] Hackett, of the Brooklyn Club, took the boys to the White House yesterday [April 2], and introduced them to President Cleveland. Each member of the club was introduced individually to the President. In the course of a general conversation the President said that he had always taken great interest in the national game and had often attended games in New York. […] They were the first club to call upon the new President in a body.” From the Brooklyn Union, April 3, 1885. Brooklyn played an exhibition game in Washington against the Nationals, an Eastern League team, on April 2, 1885. Grover Cleveland was sworn in as the 22nd US President on March 4, 1885.
April 1885: “The [Brooklyn] team’s new uniform will consist of light gray material for shirt, pantaloons and cap, trimmed with red cord, belt and stockings of a deep red. A handsome, loose coat, two or three shades darker than the material of the uniform, is also provided for each man.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 4, 1885. Research from Don Stokes. Note that the team cap appeared white in the team photo above, see photo A. Also note that while the Brooklyn team wore gray uniforms in 1885, there have been no reports found to date that call the team by the nickname of “Grays.”
June 1885: “The uniforms of the various clubs in the American Association are as follows: Louisville, white with dark red stockings and caps; Cincinnati, white with scarlet stockings; Pittsburg[h], gray, with red stockings; St. Louis, white, with brown stockings; Athletics; white, with blue stockings; Baltimore, white pants, pink-striped caps and jackets and red stockings; Brooklyns, gray, with red stockings; Mets, blue suits, with white stockings.” From the Ellicotville (NY) Post, June 15, 1885. A similar report was included in The Sporting Life, June 17, 1885, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 20, 1885, and a research pamphlet by Preston Orem, Baseball From Newspaper Accounts, 1885 (early 1960s). Specific documentation was not provided by Orem but his finding most likely came from a newspaper from the June 1885 time period. Orem passage from John Thorn. Sporting Life research from Chuck McGill.
1885, referenced in July 1886: “[Henry] Porter, the Brooklyn player, is the owner of a red jersey, which he has worn in every game he has pitched for the Brooklyn Club. He thinks it would be impossible to win a game without it. […] In St. Louis last season [1885], the jersey was at the laundry and he could not get it out. […] The jersey was recovered, however, by one of the directors of the club just in the nick of tome, and Porter won the game.” From the Washington (DC) Critic and Record, July 17, 1886. According to baseball-reference.com, Porter pitched three years in Brooklyn, from 1885 to 1887. His win-loss record during those years was 33-21, 27-19 and 15-24, respectively. According to retrosheet.org, Porter pitched in St. Louis in 1885 on May 23, July 10 and July 12.
Team genealogy:
Brooklyn 1883-1957
Brooklyn was formed as a minor league team in 1883 and joined the American Association (AA) in 1884. The AA was a major league operating 1882-1891 and Brooklyn played in the AA between 1884 and 1889. Brooklyn moved to the National League (NL) for the 1890 season. The NL began operation in 1876. Brooklyn played in the NL between 1890 and 1957, when the team moved to Los Angeles. Information from wikipedia.com.
1885 Brooklyn summary
Uniform: light gray, dark red stockings, white cap
First worn:
Photographed: team photo, late July to September
Described: April
Material:
Manufacturer:
Supposition:
Variations: Porter wore a red shirt when pitching
Other items: dark gray coat
Home opener report: none, April 24 v. Baltimore
Rendering posted: August 2, 2015
Diggers on this uniform: Don Stokes, John Thorn, Ken Samoil, Mark Fimoff,