1890 New York (New Yorks, Giants)
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 & 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 these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated May 17, 1890. Drawing of team based on photo taken between April 1890 and mid-May 1890. Drawing was published in a newspaper on May 17, 1890. Photo year can be confirmed by appearance of player Vaughn, who only played for New York in 1890. Players were depicted wearing a uniform with lace ties and a dark belt and dark stockings. Many of the shirts were short-sleeved with the sleeves cut just below the elbow. The drawing does not confirm whether the cap had horizontal pleats or horizontal fabric bands.
Top row, from left: G Gore (NL 87-89, 91, PL 90), W Brown (NL 87-89, PL 90), R Connor (NL 83-89, 91, 93, 94, PL 90), M Slattery (NL 88, 89, PL 90), J Ewing (PL 90, NL 91), H O’Day (NL 89, PL 90) and T Keefe (AA 83, 84, NL 85-89, 91, PL 90). Front: A Whitney (NL 88, 89, PL 90), G Hatfield (NL 87-89, PL 90), J O’Rourke (NL 85-89, 91, 92, PL 90), B Ewing (NL 83-89, 91, 92, PL 90), E Crane (NL 88, 89, 92, 93, PL 90), F Vaughn (PL 90) and D Richardson (NL 84-89, 91, PL 90). Player IDs and image from The Sporting Life, May 17, 1890. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Research on the The Sporting Life drawing from Ken Samoil.
Dated May 17, 1890. Detail view of photo A. Detail view shows lace ties and a shirt placket that ended in a pointed tab. The drawing does not confirm whether the cap had horizontal pleats or fabric bands.
Photo B
Dated April 20, 1890. Newspaper illustration of T Keefe (AA 83, 84, NL 85-89, 91, PL 90). Date determined by the newspaper publish date. Illustration shows player wearing a collared shirt and pill-box cap. A similar shirt and cap were shown in an illustration of the team published in The Sporting Life in May 1890, see photo A. The illustration of Keefe showed the player with a necktie that was tucked into a center opening in the shirt. This may suggest a shirt with lace ties. This illustration may have been drawn based on any photo taken during the late 1880s and an 1890 photo date cannot be confirmed. Image from the New York Press, April 20, 1890.
Photo C
Dated 1890 or 1891. Studio portrait of J Ewing (PL 90, NL 91). Full view at left, detail view at right. Player wore a uniform with lace ties in this photo that resembles the uniform depicted in a drawing of the team published in a newspaper in May 1890, see photo A. Detail view shows decorative stitching around the lace ties and a shirt placket ending in a point. Both are similar to that shown in photo A. Detail view also show thick and large lettering across chest. Years with team from baseball-reference.com.
Photo D
Dated April 19, 1890. Photo of New York (PL) playing Philadelphia (PL) at Brotherhood Park, New York. This image was part of a published photo essay covering both the New York NL and PL home openers on this day. The image showed the New York team in the field, and that their uniform was white in color, with white caps, dark belt and dark stockings. Image and game date from The Illustrated American, May 10, 1890.
Photo E
Dated April 19, 1890. Photo of B Ewing (NL 83-89, 91, 92, PL 90), full view at left, detail view at right. Photo dated by The Illustrated American which published this photo on May 10, 1890. Detail view showed lace ties on shirt. Years Ewing with team from baseball-reference.com. Research from Ken Samoil. Image scan from Getty Images, which incorrectly dated some images in this series as 1892.
Photo F
Dated April 19, 1890. Photo of B Ewing (NL 83-89, 91, 92, PL 90), full view at left, detail view at right. Photo dated by The Illustrated American which published this photo on May 10, 1890. Though this photo was taken at the same time as photo D, this image of Ewing appeared to show no lace ties and a lighter tone on his shoes. This may indicate this image was retouched when it was published. Years Ewing with team from baseball-reference.com. Research from Ken Samoil. Image scan from Getty Images, which incorrectly dated some images in this series as 1892.
Photo G
Dated April 19, 1890. Photo of T Keefe (AA 83, 84, NL 85-89, 91, PL 90), full view at left, detail view at right. Photo dated by The Illustrated American which published this photo on May 10, 1890. Years Keefe with team from baseball-reference.com. Research from Ken Samoil. Image scan from Getty Images. Getty incorrectly captioned this image as “Tim Keefe, pitcher for the New York Giants, warms up in Washington Park in Brooklyn before a game in 1892.” The photo was taken at Brotherhood Park, New York, in 1890.
Photo H
Dated 1890. Postcard of player portraits positioned on a baseball diamond. Full view at left, detail view at right. Postcard utilized player portraits matching those taken in late 1888 or early 1889 and featuring oval frames. Therefore, though this postcard was issued in 1890 it does not show the 1890 uniform. See the 1888 New York entry for more information on these portraits.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
January 1890: “All the secretaries of the clubs in the Players’ National League [i.e., Players’ League] have sent their club uniform colors to Secretary Brunell. All the clubs, except Philadelphia, have selected white home and colored traveling uniforms, so that the audience can readily distinguish the teams in the field. The teams will be dressed as follows: […] New York- Home: White suits, black trimmings, belts and stockings. Traveling: Yale gray, black trimmings, belts, and stockings.” From the Chicago Daily Tribune, January 29, 1890. Research from Don Stokes. A similar report was published in the Buffalo Courier, January 30, 1890, and The Sporting Life, February 5, 1890.
January 1890: “The colors of the New York Brotherhood Club [i.e., Players’ League] have been forwarded to Secretary Brunell. The team will have two uniforms–one of white and the other light gray. The trimmings for both suits will be black, with caps and stockings of the same color.” From The Sporting Life, January 29, 1890. Research from Chuck McGill. Note, this preseason report is the only specific reference suggesting New York wore black caps to start the season.
March 1890: “The New York Players’ League team will have a home uniform of white and a traveling suit of cream color, both will be trimmed in black.” From the New York Evening Telegram, March 5, 1890.
March 1890: “Keefe & Becannon are busy with orders for uniforms. [New York] Manager Ewing has given them an order for the Giants’ suits. The home colors will be a pure white, trimmed with black, and the traveling suits will be of a light cream color, similarly trimmed.” From The Sporting Life, March 12, 1890. Research from Chuck McGill.
April 19, 1890, New York (PL) v. Philadelphia (PL) at New York: “Then came the turn of Ewing’s warriors [to enter the field]. Dressed in new suits of white, black stockings and trimming, they followed the band through the grand stand.” From the New York Press, April 20, 1890.
April 19, 1890, New York (PL) v. Philadelphia (PL), at New York, opening day: “The Giants were attired in white uniforms, with black stockings; the Phillies had blue suits and light blue stockings.” From Preston D. Orem, Baseball 1882-1891 From The Newspaper Accounts (1966, 1967, reprinted by SABR in 2021). Note that Orem in his publication had a different description of the uniforms from this day. The error derived from the fact that there were two home openers on April 19, 1890, held in adjacent ballparks in New York, and both featuring teams representing New York and Philadelphia. One was a National League contest and the other of the Players’ League. Based on other reports of the two Philadelphia uniforms from 1890, it appears Orem switched the uniform descriptions from these two games by accident.
July 21, 1890, New York (PL) v. Buffalo (PL) at Buffalo: “Buffalo, July 21—The black ‘Nadjys’ are a success. Out of the most mournful-looking fabric which it is possible for the human mind to conceive Keefe & Becannon have manufactured a mascot that has lifted the Giants up another rung on the ladder of fame. When the [New York] boys came out on the field this afternoon they looked like […] a squad of those dark ghosts which rowed the dying King Arthur over the mystic sea from Camelot. […] Did anybody ever see John Ewing in a Nadjy uniform? If not it is well worth a journey out into the wild, wooly West to see him sporting around […] in all the abandon of a skirt dancer without the skirts. From the sausage-like fullness of Crane’s fatted calves to the graceful contour of John’s Nadjy loins is a range of adipose tissue that fills the gamut of human physique.” From the New York World, July 22, 1890. “Mascot,” as used in this report, refers to a good-luck charm. 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 1890: “The outfitters say they will have all the new and natty ‘Nadjy’ uniforms of the [New York] club ready by the time the team reaches Cleveland. Nine of them are already finished, and the boys say they fit like ‘paper on the wall.’” From the National Police Gazette, August 2, 1890. New York (PL) played at Cleveland (PL) on August 21-23, 1889. Game dates from retrosheet.org.
August 1890: “While in New York, Mike Kelly made a kick against the Giants wearing their black road uniforms, claiming that according to the rule they should appear in white. Ewing says that the resolution by the Players’ League regarding uniforms does not make it compulsory for any club to confine itself […] at home or abroad.” From The Sporting Life, August 30, 1890. New York hosted Boston August 16, 19 & 20, 1890. Game dates from retrosheet.org.
Team genealogy: New York 1890-1890
New York was formed to join the Players’ League (PL) at the league’s inception in 1890. The PL was a major league that played for one season before folding. The team merged into the New York National League team after the 1890 season. Info from wikipedia.
Rendering posted: April 26, 2017
Diggers on this uniform: Bill Grindler, Chuck McGill, Don Stokes, Ken Samoil,