1897 Detroit (Detroits, Tigers)
Left: This rendering is based on written documentation for color and partial visual documentation for uniform style. 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 partial 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 4, 1897. These cartoon illustrations were published on this day as part of a newspaper report of the season opener in Detroit. Both drawings showed a player wearing a uniform with an old-English “D” on the right breast, a pillbox style cap with two horizontal bands, and dark stockings. A newspaper on this day described the team as wearing “clean white uniforms, and black trimmings,” see written descriptions below. Illustrations from the Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1897. Research and image scan from Todd Radom, toddradom.com, retrieved August 2, 2019, and from Peter Reitan.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
September 1896: “Detroit will wear new uniforms of white with black trimmings abroad next year [1897].” From the Detroit Free Press, September 26, 1896.
March 1897: “The Detroit Uniforms. — Players will not look like Coney’s army this year. — White with black trimmings will be attractive. […] The uniforms for the club were ordered from Spalding yesterday. The gray of last year [1896], the blue of the year before [1895] and some of the cream and black from the first year [1894] will serve for out-of-town games, in spite of the fact that the team will have a sort of a misfit appearance. The home uniforms […] are white with black trimmings. The shirts and pants will be white and the caps white with black bands. The belts, stockings and word Detroit on the shirt fronts will be black. Manager Allen does not like the initial D, so the full word will be used.” From the Detroit Free Press, March 4, 1897. Research from Ed Morton and from Don Stokes. Cartoon illustrations of opening day in Detroit, published two months later on May 4, 1897, suggested the team wore the “initial D” on their uniform, and not the city name, see photo A.
March 1897: “The traveling uniforms of the several Western League teams this season will be as follows: Indianapolis, gray with brown trimmings; Milwaukee, gray with light blue trimmings; St. Paul, dark blue with black trimmings; Minneapolis, gray with black trimmings; Kansas City, dark blue throughout; Columbus and Detroit, gray with maroon trimmings; Grand Rapids, gray with black trimmings. All the clubs will wear white at home, with the same colored trimmings as used on the road uniform.” From St. Paul Globe, March 21, 1897. Research from Peter Reitan and Chuck McGill. This story also appeared in The Sporting Life, March 27, 1897. Research from Chuck McGill.
April 1897: “The Wolverines wear gray uniforms with maroon trimmings.” From the Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 18, 1897. Research from Ed Morton.
May 3, 1897, Detroit v. Indianapolis, at Detroit, opening day: “The Detroits […] marched from their club house, thirteen abreast, to certain defeat if numbers go for aught. The side issues [extras on the field] in the way of the mascot, goat and yellow kid may have been counted to dispel the hoodoo attached to the luckless number, but as later developments showed, these accessories are not an antidote. The Tigers look exceedingly attractive. It was the best uniformed line Detroit has ever presented, with clean white uniforms, and black trimmings. The mascot, Henry Plass, has the same kind of rigging as the players, the yellow kid is an animated advertisement, and the goat, with its variegated stripes, looks as though he has been foraging in a dye shop or had been eating Easter eggs and they had broken out on him. […] The goat had a most artistic bunch of green whiskers. His horns were green and his body striped with red, white and green. The green was used because there was a scarcity of blue and the boys thought the inhabitants of that part of town would not kick on substituting green for blue in the national colors. The redecorated goat, the team in white and the field covered grass made colors galore. Even Ebright had on a new blue uniform but his one decision was so yellow the suit faded. […] ‘Nice uniform, Parson,’ was observed to Tom Nicholson. ‘Yes, and it‘ll stay clean longer than any of the others, from all I can see,’ came the ready answer.” From the Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1897. Research from Peter Reitan.
May 1897: “[The Detroit players] were referred to as the ‘men of striped sweaters’ in the May 18, 1897 edition of the Detroit Free Press.” From Todd Radom, Sporting News, June 18, 2015, retrieved August 2, 2019.
May 1897: “Now that the Detroits have abandoned their old striped jackets, the nickname Tigers has no direct application.” From the St. Paul Globe, May 27, 1897. Research from Todd Radom.
June 1897: “When other papers say the Detroits looked disgraceful in their traveling clothes they probably forget about the Kansas City misfits.” From the Detroit Free Press, June 11, 1897. Research from Ed Morton. Like Detroit, Kansas City wore different combinations of road uniforms in 1897.
Team genealogy: Detroit 1894-
Detroit joined the Western League (WL) in 1894 when the league reformed. The reorganized WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and reformed again as the American League (AL) for 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.
Rendering posted: April 10, 2020
Diggers on this uniform: Chuck McGill, Don Stokes, Ed Morton, Peter Reitan, Todd Radom,