1885 St. Louis (Maroons, Black Diamonds)
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 1885: “[St. Louis owner Henry] Lucas will have one of the strongest and best advertised teams in the country this season.” From the Cincinnati Enquirer, April 20, 1885.
April 1885: “The St. Louis [National] League club will have a uniform similar to that worn by the New Yorks last season [in 1884].” From the Boston Globe, April 24, 1885. Research from Oliver Kodner.
April 1885: “[Owner Henry] Lucas is anxious to have his team considered the best-dressed team in the [National] League. […] Their shirts and trousers are to be made of white English cricket flannel and the trousers are to be of Knickerbocker style and very roomy. The button holes and the name ‘St. Louis,’ which is to appear on the breast of the shirts, will be worked in maroon silk, while the same material will be used to trim the shirts and trousers with. The caps are to be made of maroon flannel and the same shape as those of last year [1884], while belts are also to be maroon in color and will be fitted with buckles of plated silver. Over the shirts regular cardigan jackets are to be worn, and these will also be maroon in color, and while made of English pilot cloth, the collars to be trimmed with maroon silk. Regular belts will be worn with the cardigans, so that when the boys appear on the field they will look like a regiment of soldiers in full dress. The shoes are to be made of the best deerskin, and are to be lighter and lower cut than those of last year [1884]. Each member of the team will be supplied with an individual bat bag, and this will do away with a regular bat-carrier.” From the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, April 27, 1885. Research from Ed Morton.
April 1885: “Tomorrow afternoon [April 30, 1885] the first [National] League championship game that has been played in St. Louis since 1877 will take place at the Union Grounds, the new St. Louis League team and the Chicago White Stockings being the competing teams. […] In tomorrow’s game the St. Louis team will don their new uniforms for the first time. They consist of pants and shirts made of heavy English cricket flannel, the name ‘St. Louis’ being worked on the breasts of the shirts in maroon silk. The caps, belts and stockings are also maroon in color. Over their shirts the boys will wear handsome maroon cardigan jackets.” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 29, 1885. Research from Ed Morton.
April 30, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. Chicago, at St. Louis, opening day: “At 2:30 it stopped raining and the sun commenced to peep out through the clouds. By 4 o’clock, the time for the calling of the game, the grounds were fairly dry. […] The St. Louis team appeared in their white and maroon uniforms.” From the Chicago Inter Ocean, May 1, 1885. Research from Gary Kodner.
April 30, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. Chicago, at St. Louis, opening day: “Two balls were used [in the game]. Whenever one was sent over the fence by a foul hit, the other was immediately substituted, thus avoiding delay.” From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 1, 1885. This entry was not uniform related, but interesting nonetheless.
May 1885 to June 1885: “The uniforms of the new [St. Louis National] League team were much admired. […] On the first trip certain newspapers dubbed the Lucas men the ‘Black Diamonds’ on account of the former blacklisted players in the lineup, and upon the diamond, Lucas just adopted that title too and had little diamond pieces of cloth sewed upon the shirts.” From Preston Orem, Baseball From Newspaper Accounts 1885. Specific documentation not provided by Orem. Orem passage from John Thorn. The “first trip” for St. Louis began in Detroit on May 8, 1885, and ended in Chicago on June 10, 1885, consisting of twenty-four consecutive road games.
May 1885: “Lucas’ ‘black diamonds’ is the latest appellation for the St. Louis [National] League team.” From the Boston Globe, May 14, 1885. St. Louis played at Boston May 11 and 12. This may be the first published reference to the Black Diamond nickname.
May 11, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. Boston, at Boston, South End grounds, home opener: “The St. Louis club rode to the grounds yesterday in barouches.” From the Boston Globe, May 12, 1885. A barouche is a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood over the rear half, a seat in front for the driver, and seats facing each other for the passengers.
May 11, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. Boston, at Boston, South End grounds, home opener: “The uniforms of the Bostons and St. Louis are so much alike that it is hard to distinguish the players apart.” From the Boston Globe, May 12, 1885. Research from Ed Morton.
May 1885: “The St. Louis [National] League nine are called the ‘Black Diamonds’ down East.” From the Philadelphia Times, May 17, 1885.
May 1885: “A New York paper calls the Lucas nine of St. Louis the ‘Black Diamonds’ because it is a team composed of a majority of reinstated black-listed players.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 19, 1885.
May 23, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. New York (NL) at New York: “In very inclement weather, 3,500 appeared at New York to greet the Maroons, who were jauntily uniformed and presented a pleasing appearance.” From Preston D. Orem, Baseball 1882-1891 From The Newspaper Accounts (1966, 1967, reprinted by SABR in 2021), pg. 193.
June 6, 1885, St. Louis (NL) v. Chicago, at Chicago, new grounds, home opener: “At 2 o’clock or shortly after a tally-ho coach and four-in-hand landed the teams at the east end of the grounds, and the Lucas team [i.e., St. Louis] in their gay uniforms of maroon and white took the field.” From the Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1885.
September 1885: “The coming champions, the Chicago White Stockings, begin the closing games of their championship series [in St. Louis] at the Union Grounds this afternoon with the St. Louis [National] League team as their opponent.” From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 8, 1885. This entry, by a St. Louis newspaper, would suggest that the Black Diamond nickname had fallen out of use by the end of the 1885 season.
Team genealogy:
St. Louis 1884-1886
St.Louis was formed to join the Union Association (UA) in 1884. The UA was a pro league operating for one year in 1884. When the UA folded, St. Louis was invited to join the National League (NL) for the 1885 season. The NL began operation in 1876 and St. Louis played in the NL in 1885 and 1886. The team was sold and transferred to Indianapolis after the 1886 season. Information from wikipedia.
1885 St. Louis (NL) summary
Uniform: white, red stockings and caps
First worn: April 30, St. Louis
Photographed:
Described: April-June
Material: flannel, silk lettering and trim, deerskin shoes
Manufacturer:
Supposition: caps style, shirt style, lettering style, arrangement of diamonds on shirt
Variations: diamond shapes added to shirts in mid-May
Other items: red Cardigan jacket
Home opener report: yes, Apr 30 v. Chicago
Rendering posted: August 29, 2020
Diggers on this uniform: Ed Morton, Gary Kodner, John Thorn, Oliver Kodner,