1889 St. Louis (Browns)
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
Left center, right center and right: These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style only. An educated guess is made on uniform color, based on documentation from a related year, and also on minor details that may be missing or difficult to determine.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on this uniform:
Photo A
Dated 1889. Old Judge cabinet card of S Fuller (89-91). Full view at left, detail view at right. Player wore a white uniform in this photo with a banded cap, dark belt and dark stockings. This most likely was the uniform mentioned in an April 1889 newspaper report that described the uniform accent color as brown, which was the team color and nickname. Detail view shows a cap with, presumably, a brown bill and a white body with brown horizontal bands. Detail view also shows a shirt with lace ties. The city name across the chest matched the blocky lettering style used in the St. Louis uniforms from the previous year of 1888. Years Fuller with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and from Gary Kodner.
Photo B
Dated 1889. Old Judge cabinet card of E Chamberlain (88-90). Full view at left, detail view at right. Studio background and lighting match that of photo A, indicating both photos were made at the same time. Detail view shows pants with thin trim running down the seam. Years Chamberlain with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and from Gary Kodner.
Photo C
Dated September 1889. Photo year can be confirmed by appearance of players King, Hudson and Milligan in combination with player Duffee. These players were together on the St. Louis roster for only the 1889 season. Photo most likely taken at Philadelphia, Jefferson Street Grounds before a game against Athletic. If the photo caption is correct, the photo was taken between September 13, 1889 and September 15, 1889. These were the only dates St. Louis played at Philadelphia during this month. The team was in disarray during this period. They had just arrived from Brooklyn where they played a controversial series earlier in the week, including forfeiting a game in protest. Their uniforms were also in disarray as three different versions can be seen in this photo. Several different styles of caps were also worn. For more information on each uniform style, see detail views below. Note the padded catcher’s mitt on the lap of player Boyle, sitting far left in photo.
Top row, from left: S King (87-89), N Hudson (87-89), (C Comiskey 82-89, 91), Y Robinson (85-89, 91) and J Milligan (88, 89). Front row: J Boyle (87-89, 91), C Duffee (89, 90), A Latham (AA 83-89, NL 96), S Fuller (89-91), J Stivetts (89-91) and T O’Neil (84-89, 91). Player IDs from Ken Samoil. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Philadelphia game dates from retrosheet.org. Image scan from Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia (1889). Original photo by Levitype Co, Philadelphia.
Dated September 1889. Detail view of photo C. Detail view shows uniform with dark collars and dark sleeve cuffs. The uniform may be white in color, and not light gray as often found on road uniforms. The city name utilized serif-style lettering arched across the chest. Due to the irregular quality of the lettering, it is possible the city name was hand-painted onto the shirts. It is undetermined if there was a period after the city name (possibly these marks were debris on the photo). Most of the caps worn with this uniform had a white cord running along the bill. Note how the lace ties were tied pointing both up and down on the player on the left. Detail image scan from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee.
Dated September 1889. Another detail view of photo C. Detail view shows block-lettering on shirt, most likely brown in color. The uniform itself appears to be light in tone, possibly light gray which was becoming common for road uniforms. The shirt was accented by dark lace ties and a white placket surrounded by dark decorative stitching. The cap was dark, probably brown, with subtle horizontal bands. Detail image scan from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee.
Dated September 1889. Another detail view of photo C. Detail view shows two players both wearing a uniform with block lettering across the chest. The lettering on the shirt at right was lighter in color than the others in this photo. The light lettering may have been light brown or light gray in color. The shirt was light gray and the shirt placket was white. Note that the player in lower front of this detail view wore a cap with white trim along the brim and unlike any other in photo. Detail image scan from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee.
Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1889: “Larry O’Dea has secured the contract for the St. Louis team’s uniform.” From The Sporting Life, March 27, 1889.
April 3, 1889, St Louis exhibition game at St. Louis, Sportsman’s Park: “The Browns will wear their handsome new uniforms of white, with brown trimmings, brown belt and brown stockings, in today’s game at Sportsman’s Park. They were made by Rawlings Bros.” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 3, 1889. Research from Oliver Kodner.
May 1889: “On May 2nd at St. Louis, [Manager] Comiskey told [Yank] Robinson to get a pair of [Tip] O’Neill’s extra uniform pants as the ones Yank had were too soiled. A boy was sent to the hotel for the trousers but denied admission at the carriage gate on his return. So Yank had to play on Ladies’ Day in a soiled pair of pants which upset him to no end.” From Preston D. Orem, Baseball 1882-1891 From The Newspaper Accounts (1966, 1967, reprinted by SABR in 2021), pg. 392. Per retrosheet.org, St, Louis played at home on May 1st v. Kansas City and May 3rd v. Louisville, with no official game played on May 2.
Team genealogy:
St. Louis 1882-
St. Louis was formed to join the American Association (AA) in 1882. The AA was a major league operating between 1882 and 1891 and St. Louis played in the AA in every year of the league’s existence. The team moved to the National League (NL) for 1892 season. The NL began operation in 1876 and St. Louis has played in the NL every year since 1892. Information from wikipedia.
Rendering posted: February 22, 2017
Diggers on this uniform: Gary Kodner, Ken Samoil, Mark Fimoff, Oliver Kodner,