1894 Detroit (Detroits, Creams)

This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and partial 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

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A

Dated April 1894. A date for this drawing, undoubtedly based on a photograph, can be determined by the fact that the drawing was published in a newspaper on April 22, 1894. An 1894 date can be further confirmed by the fact that the Detroit team was a new franchise created at the start of the 1894 season and that none of the players shown above played for the team the following season of 1895. Players were depicted in this drawing as wearing a buttoned shirt with the city name arched across the chest. The shirt also included a breast pocket and the majority of the shirts shown in the drawing were short-sleeved. It was possible one player may have worn padded pants. The belt and stockings were dark in color.

Top row, from left: C Carroll (94), B Everitt (94), J Hurley (Qncy WA 94, Det 94) and M Cross (Det 94, Syr EL 94, Pit NL 94). Middle: J McGuckin (Tol WL 94, Det 94), B Kreig (RkIs WA 94, Det 94), B Glenalvin (94), J Burns (Mpls WL 94, Det 94) and H Earl (94). Front: G Harper (Nshv SA 94, Det 94), G Cobb (94) and L Balsz (Det 94, GR WL 94). Image and player IDs from the Detroit Free Press, April 22, 1894. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from Peter Reitan.

Dated April 1894. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed a buttoned shirt and a shirt placket, lettering arched across the shirt and a shirt pocket on the left breast. The cap was without wide horizontal bands.

Written documentation on this uniform:
April 27, 1894, Detroit v. Toledo, at Toledo, White Stocking Park: “[The weather] was warm enough for a man to go on the field without a sweater and the spectators could use their spring overcoats in lieu of cushions, a luxury unprovided at White Stocking Park. The players seemed to feel the change and [Toledo] Capt. Carney’s men were very frisky. The California contingent playing for Detroit and wearing Los Angeles uniforms did not exhibit as much activity.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 28, 1894. Research from Peter Reitan.

May 1894: “Already the members of the [Detroit] club are nicknamed. […] Vanderbeck is known as ‘Count,’ and the club as the ‘Creams.’” From The Sporting Life, May 12, 1894. Research from Chuck McGill. The team nickname of “Creams” may have been a reference to the color of the uniforms. Researcher Richard Bak wrote in A Place For Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium (1998) that the nickname came from team owner George Van Derbeck who claimed the 1894 Detroit team would be the “cream of the [Western] league.” Researcher Peter Reitan wrote that Van Derbeck, who brought players with him from the west coast, had bragged that his men had been the “cream of the California League.” Reitan also found that the nickname first appeared in a Detroit Free Press headline on March 26, 1894 calling the team “Derbeck’s Creams.” Reitan research from esnpc.blogspot.com, retrieved August 3, 2019.

1894, referenced in March 1897: “The gray of last year [1896], the blue of the year before [1895] and some of the cream and black of the first year [1894] will serve for out-of-town games [in 1897], in spite of the fact that the team will have a sort of misfit appearance.” From the Detroit Free Press, March 3, 1897. Research from Ed Morton.

Team genealogy: Detroit 1894-
Detroit joined the Western League (WL) in 1894, the same year the league reformed. The reorganized WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and reformed again as the American League (AL) before the 1900 season. Detroit played in the WL between 1894 and 1899 and has played in the American League from 1900 to the present day. Information from wikipedia.com.