1897 All-America (All-Americans)

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 this uniform:

Photo A

Dated November 1897 to December 1897. Collage of touring teams photographed by a California photographer. Date range of photos determined by the team’s time in California. A version of this collage had the date December 10, 1897 stamped on it. A team representing Baltimore was shown on left, and a team picked from other National League teams, called “All-America,” was shown on right. The All-America players were photographed wearing a dark shirt and a dark pill-box cap. One newspaper described the uniform color as navy blue. Six of the twelve players shown in the collage wore their collars up.

Players on All-America team, top row from left (with 1897 regular-season team in parenthesis): B Nash (Phi) and P Tebeau (Cle). Second row: B Rhines (Cin) and C Hastings (Pit). Third row: A Smith (Bro) and J Powell (Cle). Fourth row: B Dahlen (Chi), J Collins (Bos), T Donahue (Chi) and C Stahl (Bos). Bottom row: J Burkett (Cle) and B Lange (Chi). Player IDs from collage. Player Tim Donahue was incorrectly labeled in the collage as F. C. (Red) Donahue. Regular-season teams from baseball-reference.com. Four National League teams, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and Washington, were not represented with a player on the team. Donahue identity from Nigel Ayres, and also from Charlie Bevis, Jimmy Collins, A Baseball Biography (2012). Image scan from Nigel Ayres. This image was also reprinted in the Baltimore Sun in 1957, according to Albersheim’s Auction. Original photo by Theodore C. Marceau, San Francisco.

Dated November 1897 to December 1897. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that the players were photographed wearing a dark uniform shirt with white buttons, and that one of the white buttons was placed inside the lower opening of the letter “R.” The shirt had no pocket. The pillbox cap had four subtle horizontal bands and a white horizontal band along the top edge of the cap. It is possible some of the horizontal bands were colored red and blue.

Written documentation on this uniform:
October 1897: “The All Americas will be attired in navy blue, with red, white and blue stockings.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 3, 1897.

October 1897: “The All-Americans will attire their Apollo Belvidere [sp] shapes in navy blue uniforms and red, white and blue stockings. Each player has deposited $100 with the management to insure [sp] good playing. Any player who fails to take good care of himself forfeits his $100 and walks back from ‘Frisco. That should put delinquents in good condition for another season.” From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8, 1897. Research from Don Stokes.

October 1897: “Brooklyn, N.Y., Oct. 4 —- […] The members of the All-America team who will go on the [upcoming] trip will wear light tan suits. A feature of their uniform will be black stockings with red, white and blue stripes two inches wide.” From The Sporting Life, October 9, 1897. Research from Chuck McGill. Note that this description of a “light tan” uniform does not match the St. Louis Post-Dispatch report above.

1897, referenced in March 1898: “The circus feature of the [Boston] traveling suits will be the belts, which will be a combination of red, white and blue, such as worn by the All Americas in
their trip to the coast.” From The Sporting Life, March 5, 1898.

Team genealogy: All-America, 1897
The All-America team was created for a two-month exhibition tour of the US West and California after the 1897 season had ended. The tour began in Hoboken, New Jersey, on October 3, 1897 and arrived in San Francisco on November 6, where they played until early December. After games in Los Angeles, the tour ended in San Bernardino, California, on December 13. Hoboken date from The Sporting Life, October 23, 1897. California dates from from Charlie Bevis, Jimmy Collins, A Baseball Biography (2012).