1888 Ft. Worth TX

Left: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Minor details may be undocumented or difficult to determine. An educated guess is made to complete the rendering.

Rendering accuracy:Year: documented    Team: documented

Right: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style only. Color information is unknown and the uniform is rendered in values of gray. Important details may also be undocumented or difficult to determine and an educated guess is made to complete the rendering.

Rendering accuracy:Year: documented    Team: documented

Visual documentation on these uniforms:

Photo A

Dated early May 1888 to late June 1888. Collage of photographs at left, detail view of team photo at right. Year of team photo confirmed by the appearance of players Goodenough, Joyce, Fudger, Firle, Sunday, Kittle, Rogers, Work and Geiss, all of whom only played for this team in 1888. A date range of early May 1888 to late June 1888 can be determined by the appearance of Geiss, who was signed by Ft. Worth shortly before May 15, 1888 and released by the team when the team disbanded on June 28, 1888. Players wore a dark uniform in this photo with white lettering, belts and stockings. The shirt had lace ties. The cap had vertical stripes. The player seated in the front row middle wore a different uniform, one of a lighter mid-tone color. A newspaper reported before the start of the season that the team planned to wear a dark blue uniform, with white white stockings and a cap of “blue and white stripes.”

Top row, from left: J Rademacher? (88, 90, 92), B Goodenough (FW 88, Gal TxL 88, Dallas TxL 88), M O’Connor (88, 90) and B Joyce (FW 88, NO TxSL 88). Middle: F Fudger? (FW 88, SxC WA 88), M Firle (88), A Sunday (FW 88, Dal TxSL 88), D O’Leary (88, 89) and G Kittle? (FW 88, Dal TxSL 88). Front: E Rogers (FW 88, SA TxSL 88), W Work (FW 88, NO TxSL 88, SA TxL 88) and B Geiss (FW 88, Cha SL 88, SxC WA 88). Player IDs based on individual portraits in collage. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Geiss signing info from the Memphis Avalance, May 15, 1888. Geiss release and team disbanding info from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 29, 1888. Research from Ed Morton. Note that The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1997) erroneously listed that Ft. Worth disbanded July 4, 1888. Image scan from Carson Lorey. Original photos by Lucore and Ward, Opera Studio, Ft. Worth.

Dated early May 1888 to late June 1888. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that the city name was displayed in bold lettering across the shirt and that the shirt had white or light-colored lace ties. The striped cap was in the pillbox style.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1888: “The Fort Worth boys were out practicing yesterday [March 21, 1888] in their new uniforms. The suits are of dark blue, with ‘Fort Worth’ in large letters on the fronts, white stockings and caps of blue and white stripes.” From the Fort Worth Daily Gazette, March 22, 1888. Research from Don Stokes.

Team genealogy: Coming soon