1891 New York (New Yorks, Giants)
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 partial 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
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated April 122, 1891. Top photo, New York, left, and Boston, right, at New York, Polo Grounds, opening day. Bottom photo, detail view of New York team. Players wore a white, tight-fitting cloth uniform in this photo, with a dark cap, dark stockings and a white belt. The majority of sleeves were elbow-length and several players wore an undershirt with the uniform. A newspaper from this opening game said that the New York home uniform was white in color, tight-fitting in style, and worn with black stockings.
Top row, from left: T Keefe (AA 83, 84, NL 85-89, 91, PL 90, Phi NL 91), J Ewing? (PL 90, NL 91), R Connor (NL 83-89, 91, 93, 94, PL 90), B Ewing (NL 83-89, 91, 92, PL 90), (J Mutrie mgr, NY AA 83, 84, NY NL 85-91), A Rusie? (90-95, 97, 98), J Denny (90-91) and M Tiernan (87-99). Front row: J Glasscock (90, 91), M Welch (83-92), D Richardson? (NL 84-89, 91, PL 90), (mascot), J Sharrott (90-92), D Buckley (90, 91), C Bassett (90-92), J O’Rourke (NL 85-89, 91, 92, PL 90) and G Gore (NL 87-89, 91, 92 PL 90). Player IDs based on photo portraits of players (dressed in street clothes) made by Joseph Hall, Brooklyn, and issued in 1891. Possible ID of player Rusie from Ken Samoil. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from Nigel Ayres and also from Ken Samoil. Original photo by Joseph Hall, Brooklyn.
Dated April 1891 to mid-July 1891. Another detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that the tight-fitting uniform had white lace ties ending above the city name and that the ends of the lace ties were long and hung down to the lettering. Note that the city name was positioned low on the shirt and that the lettering extended to the armpits. Detail view also showed that the belt was white, not black, as reported in a newspaper from 1891.
Photo B
Dated April 23, 1891. Drawing of player A Rusie (90-95, 97,98). Drawing was included in a newspaper report on the New York home opener April 22, 1891 v. Boston. Drawing depicted the New York player wearing a tight-fitting uniform with dark cap, belt and stockings and the city name across the chest. Drawing also depicted a button placket, however the team photo, see photo A, showed that the tight-fitting uniform had lace ties instead of buttons. Team photo also showed that the belt was white, not black as depicted here. Drawing from the New York Sun, April 23, 1891. Years Rusie with team from baseball-reference.com.
Photo C
Dated 1891. Cabinet portrait of B Burrell (91). Full view at left, detail view at right. Photo date confirmed as 1891 was the only year this player was with the team. Player wore a white or light-colored shirt with buttons and a wide button placket. The shirt was not made in the close-fitting “Nadjy style” but more likely made of thicker material such as flannel. The shirt had a pocket on the left breast and the short sleeves had button holes for sleeve extensions. This uniform may have been the road uniform which was described in a newspaper account from 1891 as gray flannel. Year Burrell with team from baseball-reference.com.
Photo D
Hand-dated 1891. New York scorecard cover with photo of B Ewing (NL 83-89, 91, 92, PL 90). Full view at left, detail view at right. This photo of Ewing was first published in late 1888 and does not date from 1891. The illustration of the player in the lower right closely resembled the 1887 uniform, with black and maroon striped shirt and maroon stockings. Years Ewing with team from baseball-reference.com.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1891: “New York. March 16. — […] Manager Mutrie ordered the uniforms for the New Yorks today. The set for traveling will be of Yale gray flannel with maroon trimmings.” From the Cincinnati Enquirer, March 17, 1891.
April 1891: “Manager Mutrie has ordered new uniforms for his New York team, which will be ready for the opening game between New York and Boston teams of the National league, April 22 in this city [New York]. They are white “Nadjy,” with black stockings, belts and caps, and gray jackets trimmed with black.” From the New York Clipper, April 11, 1891. Note that this report described the belt as black in color. However, the team photo from this year, see photo A, showed that the belt worn with the tight-fitting uniform was white in color. The term “Nadjy” was used often during this period, appearing first in 1888. It originally denoted a tight-fitting uniform that was black in color, however the term was also used to describe any tight-fitting uniform. Researcher Bill Grindler adds more on the origins of the term: “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.”
April 1891: “Manager Mutrie has ordered the new uniforms in which the New Yorks will make their appearance on April 22, when the championship season will be opened with the Bostons. They will be of white material, of the Nadjy style, with black coats and black stockings.” From the Gloversville (NY) Daily Leader, April 15, 1891.
April 22, 1891, New York v. Boston at New York, opening day parade to the Polo Grounds: “At 12 ½ o’clock a band of music struck up a lively air on Broadway, near Wall Street. Instantly a crowd rushed to the spot and found two tally-ho coaches filled will ball players. They were the Bostons, arrayed in neat gray uniforms and black stockings, and our own team dressed in their attractive, close-fitting white jerseys and black stockings.” From the New York Sun, April 23, 1891.
April 27, 1891, New York v. Brooklyn at Brooklyn, Eastern Park, opening day: “The teams came on the field at 3:30 o’clock. The Brooklyns in their brand new uniforms of white flannel, with red lettering and red stockings. The New Yorks had their unattractive visiting suit of gray flannel and black stockings.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 28, 1891. Game date from retrosheet.org.
1891, New York v. Cincinnati (NL), at Cincinnati: “New York displayed the neatest set of uniforms ever seen in Cincinnati. The uniform shirts, pants and stockings were black, with ‘New York’ in white across the shirt. Belts and caps were white.” From Preston D. Orem, Baseball 1882-1891 From The Newspaper Accounts (1966, 1967, reprinted by SABR in 2021), pg.575.
Team genealogy: New York 1883-1957
New York was formed to join the National League (NL) in 1883, with many of its players coming from a disbanded NL team in Troy, NY. The NL began operation in 1876 and this New York team played in the NL from 1883 to 1957. The team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season. Information from wikipedia.
Rendering posted: August 25, 2017
Diggers on this uniform: Bill Grindler, Ken Samoil, Nigel Ayres,