1889 Cleveland (Clevelands, Spiders)
Left & Center: These renderings are 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 renderings.
Rendering accuracy:
Year: documented Team: documented
Right: 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 these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated April 1889. Old Judge baseball card of E McKean (AA 87, 88, NL 89-99). Full view at left, detail view at right. The uniform in this photograph was most likely the gray uniform the team wore early during the 1889 season. A newspaper report from December 1888 described the uniform for the 1889 season as gray in color, with black cap and stockings. A report on May 1, 1889 stated the team had abandoned this gray uniform because the players felt it brought bad luck. This report suggests a photo date of April 1889. Photo of McKean shows a button placket with white buttons and an old-English letter “C” on the player’s right breast. The letter style and position of the letter on the shirt were similar to several of the Cleveland uniforms from 1888. Years McKean with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Photo B
Dated April 1889. Old Judge baseball card of S Sutcliffe (NL 89, PL 90). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date may be determined by similarity in background to photo A. Detail view shows thin dark trim running down the pant seam and a pant leg extending well below the knee. Most of the pants during this period ended closer to the knee. Several of the Cleveland players photographed in 1889 wore a similar pant style. Years Sutcliffe with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Photo C
Dated April 1889. Old Judge baseball card of C O’Brien (AA 88, NL 89, PL 90). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date may be determined by similarity in background to photo A. Detail view shows a dark cap with a smooth front and no noticeable banding. Years O’Brien with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Photo D
Dated May 1889 to June 1889. Year of photo can be confirmed by appearance of player Faatz in combination with players Tebeau, Radford, Sutcliffe and Beatin. This year was the only year these men played on the team together. Photo of team most likely taken at Philadelphia, Huntingdon Grounds. However, date of June 1889 in photo caption does not match with when Cleveland played their league games in Philadelphia. Based on the known dates of when these two teams played, the photo was most likely made in Philadelphia between May 22 and May 25, 1889–the nearest dates to June. Players in photo wore a dark uniform and stockings. A newspaper description from early May 1889 described this uniform as navy blue in color, with black stockings, white belt, white lettering, and a black and white “barred” cap. The uniform had lace ties ending above the lettering. The pants had a small area of quilted padding at the knees.
Top row, standing, from left: J McAleer (NL 89, 91-98, PL 90, AL 1901), P Tebeau (NL 89, 91-98, PL 90), J Bakley (AA 88, NL 89, PL 90) and P Snyder (AA 87-88, NL 89, PL 90). Front row, seated: C Stricker (AA 87, 88, NL 89, PL 90), C O’Brien (AA 88, NL 89, PL 90), J Faatz (AA 88, NL 89), P Radford (NL 89, PL 90), L Twitchell (NL 89, PL 90), (T Loftus, mgr AA 88, NL 89), S Sutcliffe (NL 89, PL 90), E Beatin (89-91) and E McKean (NL 87, 88, NL 89-98). Player IDs from photo caption on another contemporary printing of this image (not shown). Research on player IDs from Ken Samoil. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Philadelphia game dates from retrosheet.org. Original photo published in Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia (1889). Original photo by Levytype Co., Philadelphia.
Dated May 1889 to June 1889. Detail view of photo D. Detail view shows that lettering across shirt was vertically arched. Detail view also shows cap with vertical stripes.
Photo D
Dated 1891. Portrait of J McAleer (NL 89, 91-98, PL 90, AL 01). This portrait was most likely made in 1889. Full view at left, detail view at right. Image was included on a collage of player portraits issued in 1891. These portraits displayed a variety of subtle differences in uniform style suggesting some of the portraits were made in 1889 and 1890. Based on this, the McAleer portrait, as well as two others, can be identified as taken in 1889. Note that the detail view showed lettering that was vertically arched, matching the team photo above, see photo C. Also note that the angled strokes of certain letters were stair-stepped. Years McAleer with team from baseball-reference.com.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
December 1888: “The Clevelands next year will wear gray uniforms with black stockings, belts, and caps.” From the Buffalo Courier, December 11, 1888.
December 1888: “[Manager] Tom Loftus has already selected one of the uniforms for next season [1889]. It will be of blue gray (Providence gray) with black stockings, belts, caps and cardigans–a pretty combination for a road suit. The second suit is likely to be white and black with striped caps and a blazer of broad black and white stripes.” From The Sporting Life, December 19, 1888.
April 1889: “In addition to its uniform of black and gray the [Cleveland] team is to have another of navy blue jersey cloth, with black and white banded cap, black stockings and white belt.” From Philadelphia Times, April 28, 1889. Research from Don Stokes.
May 1889: “[Cleveland’s] one uniform idea has gone by the board. The players killed it, and with a half notion that the gray and black was responsible for light hitting and some of the accidents. Al Reach is building the new suits. They are of the Philadelphia class and made of jersey cloth. The suits will be here by Friday next, when the team opens against Chicago. The new uniforms will be navy blue in color, with black stockings, white and black barred caps, white belts and ‘Cleveland’ in white block letters across the breast. The players chose this array themselves. The gray suits may as well be hung on the back hook. No more games will be won in them this season. The Jonah idea is a great one.” From The Sporting Life, May 1, 1889. Research from Chuck McGill.
May 1889: “Cleveland, O., May 18. […] The Cleveland Spiders – so called on account of their peculiar appearance in their suits of black and blue – are in the East fighting their way along as well as ever a new team fought.” From The Sporting Life, May 22, 1889. Research from Peter Reitan. This report confirms the origin of the Spider nickname.
August 1889: “The Clevelands have a new uniform. It is all black, even to caps and stockings. The only white in the suit is the belt and the letters across the breast of the shirt. The uniform was ordered when the team was in Philadelphia, and, as [manager] Loftus jokingly remarked: ‘We got the mourning in advance.’ The suit is not a Nadjy, the trousers being made loose after the present pattern of the Cleveland’s solid blue suit.” From the New York Evening Telegram, August 7, 1889. Regarding the term “Nadjy,” researcher Bill Grindler adds: “Nadjy refers to an operetta of the same name which opened at the Casio Theater on Broadway on May 14, 1888. In this operetta the title character of ‘Nadjy’ appears in at least one scene in an all-black ballerina costume including a hat.”
August 1889: “The Clevelands’ new uniform are of solid black with white belts, and the name of the club across the breast in white.” From The Sporting Life, August 21, 1889. Research from Chuck McGill. Note, this account repeats what had been previously reported by the New York Evening Telegram earlier in this same month.
August 1889: “The Clevelands have a new uniform. It is all black, even the caps and stockings. The only white in the suit is the belt and the letters across the breast of the shirt.” From the Havana (NY) Journal, August 24, 1889. Note, this account repeats what had been previously reported by the New York Evening Telegram earlier in this same month.
Circa 1889, referenced in 1891: “When Cleveland selected the Nadjy uniform a few years ago [i.e., about 1889] there were several slims in the team and they were called ‘The Spiders.’ It was an appellation that made the aesthetic residents of the Forest City squirm, and they rebelled against it. Cleveland journals raised their hands in boycott, and nowadays ‘Pastsy Boliver’s Blues’ comes nearer to filling the bill.” From the Utica Tribune, August 16, 1891.
Team genealogy:
Cleveland 1887-1899
Cleveland was formed to join the American Association (AA) in 1887. The AA was a major league operating 1882-1891. Cleveland moved to the National League (NL) in 1889. The NL began operation in 1876 and Cleveland played in the NL from 1889 to 1899. After the 1899 season, Cleveland was dropped by the league and the team disbanded. Information from wikipedia.
Rendering posted: October 2, 2016
Diggers on this uniform: Bill Grindler, Chuck McGill, Don Stokes, Ken Samoil, Nigel Ayres, Peter Reitan,