1887 Cuban Giants, Trenton NJ (Trentons)
Left: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and 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
Center and right: These renderings are based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the renderings.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on this uniform:
Photo A
Dated April 1887 to early May 1887. As the label on the print states, this is a photo of the Cuban Giants, one of the top professional African-American team of the late 1880s. Below the label, the dates “1887 and 1888” were handwritten. We can further narrow the date of when this photo was taken by the appearance of player Frank Miller, a pitcher and infielder for the team. Miller, standing far right in photo A, holds a baseball to signify he was one of the team’s pitchers. Though some box scores are missing from this period, Miller was first listed as playing and pitching for the Cuban Giants in a game on April 14, 1887, in Washington DC. Miller did not appear in any further known box scores for the Cuban Giants in 1887 and apparently left the team by mid-May 1887, joining the Keystone team of Pittsburgh. Based on Miller’s time with the team, we can apply a date range of April 1887 to early May 1887 to photo A.
Miller may have left the Cuban Giants to join the Keystones and to be part of the new National Colored Base Ball League. The Keystones were a charter member of the new league and played their first league game in Pittsburgh on May 6. Miller did not appear in a box score from this game but did appear in box scores of Keystone games played in Pittsburgh on May 16, 17, 18 & 21. In the May 17 game, Miller was the Keystone pitcher. Unfortunately by the end of May, the new league folded and Miller was subsequently recorded as pitching for a semi-pro team in Ohio when he was described as “the colored pitcher of the famous Cuban Giants.” The St. Louis Globe-Democrat on July 21, 1887, reported that “Frank Miller, the colored pitcher who twirled for the Cuban Giants and the Pittsburg[h] colored League team, has quit ball playing and gone to work. ‘There is no money in ball playing,’ he says.” The Keystones did not disband after the league failed and continued to play exhibition games. Despite Miller’s efforts to find a new line of work outside of baseball, he was back in the box and pitching for the Keystones when they played his former team, the Cuban Giants, at Pittsburgh on October 26, 1887.
The date range of April 1887 to mid-May 1887 for photo A can be further confirmed by the non-appearance of pitcher Bill Seldon. Seldon first appeared in a box score of a Cuban Giants game played on June 1, 1887, and was a mainstay on the team through the end of the 1889 season. Seldon’s arrival may have led to Miller’s departure. Seldon was not on the team at the start of the season and therefore was not included in picture A.
Question — where was the photo taken? The words “Trenton and New York” were written onto the bottom of photo A. On March 14, 1887, the Trenton Daily True American reported that the Cuban Giants planned to call three different ballparks as their home that season. The newspaper listed the ballparks as the “ball grounds at Trenton, another at Hoboken [NJ, at Elysian Fields] and a third at Long Island [they played both at Atlantic Park and Ridgewood Park, Long Island City].” Box scores from throughout the 1887 season tell us the team played at all three locations, and most frequently at Trenton. Describing the Trenton grounds, the Daily True American on March 14 stated that “the old cricket grounds of Trenton, East State street, has been leased, where a handsome new grand and free stands are at present in [the] course of construction.” Referring to the grandstand, the newspaper noted that “the refreshment stand, dressing-rooms and box office will be underneath.” In photo A, a large backstop can be seen behind the players. This may be the structure that housed the dressing rooms “underneath” the grandstand as described by the newspaper, and suggests that photo A was made in Trenton. Available box scores tell us the team started the season at Long Island on April 10, 1887 (a game that was stopped by police) and in Trenton on April 11. It is possible the photo was made on April 11 in Trenton when the Cuban Giants hosted Metropolitan of the American Association.
Dated April 1887 to early May 1887. Detail view of photo A.
The Cuban Giants wore a white uniform in photo A, with a white cap, and light-colored belts and stockings. The shirts did not have any lettering across the front (clearly, the names of the players were added after the image had been taken). The majority of players wore short-sleeved shirts in photo A, with white undershirts and light-colored neckties tucked into their shirt openings. The caps were white and may have had a light-colored brim. The player identified as Boyd in the detail view may have worn a cap with light-colored horizontal bands. The shoes worn by the players may have been white or tan in color. In March 1887, a newspaper reported that the team was to have three uniforms for the upcoming season. One uniform was described as white with red stockings, one white with blue stockings and the third gray with maroon stockings. Based on the light color of the stockings in photo A, it is likely the players wore light blue stockings on this day.
Players in photo A — Top row, from left: George Parago, Ben Holmes, Shep Trusty, Art Thomas, George Williams and Frank Miller. Front row: Bill Whyte, Clarence Williams, Abe Harrison, (Stanislaus K Govern, mgr), Ben Boyd, Jack Frye and Dave Allen. Player IDs from photo A and from various other sources, including researchers Bill Hickman and Tony Kissel. Info on Miller in April 14 box score from the Washington (DC) National Republican, April 15, 1887. First game of National Colored Base Ball League season from the Pittsburgh Post, May 2, 1887. Info on Miller in box scores with Keystone from various issues of the Pittsburgh Post, May 17-21, 1887. Info on Miller pitching in Ohio from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette May 31, 1887, and pitching in October with Keystone from the Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 26, 1887. Photo from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY.
Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1887: “The [Cuban Giants] club will have three uniforms; one, all white, with red stockings and belts; another, all white with blue stockings and belts; and the third, all gray with maroon stoking and belts.” From the Trenton (NJ) Daily True American, March 14, 1887. Research from Ed Morton.
Team genealogy: Team genealogy: Cuban Giants, Trenton NJ, 1885-1889
The Cuban Giants were formed in late August 1885 in Babylon, NY, and moved to Trenton, NJ, for the 1886 season, where they played and toured as an independent professional team through the end of the 1888 season. In 1889 the team played in the Middle States League, and then relocated to York, PA, for the 1890 season. Info from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: September 16, 2023
Diggers on this uniform: Bill Hickman, Ed Morton, Tony Kissel,