1889 Toledo (Toledos)

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

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 1889. Cigar poster. Full view at left, detail view at right. Date confirmed by appearance of players Quest, Shafer, Wehrle and Stallings, their only year with the team. Poster shows illustrated portraits of players wearing a blue uniform. These portraits were most likely made from photographs. Newspaper reports confirm the team planned to wear blue uniforms in 1889, with white lettering, white caps and white stockings. Players were illustrated wearing white neckties. These ties were tucked into a center opening in the shirt, suggesting the uniform had lace ties, and not buttons. Detail view includes illustration of the Toledo ballpark with Toledo players in the field. Players were depicted wearing a blue uniform with white caps and stockings. Though it is unclear, the color of the belt does not seem to be white in this illustration.

Left top: (Ketchum pres). Right top: (C Morton mgr NWL 83, AA 84, 90, IL 89). Portraits, clockwise from top: J Quest (89), B Alvord (Tol 89, KC AA 89), H Sage (IL 89, AA 90), E Cushman (IL 89, AA 90), T Shafer (89), B VanDyke (IL 89, AA 90), B Bottenus? (TSL 88, IL 89), J Sneed (IL 89, AA 90), F Smith (IL 89, AA 90), W Wehrle (89), G Stallings (89) and P Werden (IL 89, AA 90). Player IDs from poster and from Nigel Ayres. Years with team from baseball-reference.com.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
January 1889: “The Toledos will use the same uniform they had last season—navy blue and white stockings.” From The Sporting Life, January 30, 1889. Research from Chuck McGill.

March 1889: “Toledo’s uniform will be of a very dark and heavy blue flannel, and will have the word Toledo across the shirt front. The stockings and caps will be white.” From the Buffalo Courier, March 27, 1889.

July 16, 1889, Toledo v. Syracuse at Toledo: “Toledo came out in a new black uniform from head to foot and Jonahed the [Syracuse] Stars.” From the Buffalo Courier, July 17, 1889.

Team genealogy:
 Coming soon