1899 St. Paul (St. Pauls, Apostles, Saints)
Left: This rendering is 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 rendering.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Center & Right: These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style only. An educated guess is made on uniform color based on incomplete written documentation from this year and documentation from related years. Minor details may be undocumented or difficult to determine.
Rendering accuracy: Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated April 14, 1899. This team photo was taken in St. Paul at Lexington Park and was printed in a newspaper on April 16, 1899. Though the quality of the reproduction is poor, the image does show that the team wore a white uniform, with white caps, dark belts and dark stockings. The caps were in the newsboy style and the shirts had the city name arched across the chest in the same block lettering as shown in photos B & C. A newspaper report from April 1899 stated the white uniforms were accented with red stockings.
Top row, from left: F Isbell (96-99), D Lally (99), R Denzer (95-99), W Preston (StP 97-99, Min WL 99), B Glenalvin (97-99) and H Spies (96-99). Middle: F Shugart (96-99), C Schwartz (StP 99, Lon CanL 99), (C Comiskey, mgr 95-99), L Ritter (StP 99, Dub/Qui WA 99) and P Geier (98, 99, 05-07). Front: E Burke (99) and J Clark (99). Image and player IDs from the St. Paul Globe, April 16, 1899. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from Cary Smith.
Photo B
Dated 1899, possibly June 19-21, 1899. This photo is often incorrectly labelled on websites with the year of 1884. The correct year of 1899 can be confirmed by the appearance of players Lally, McGill, Fisher, Burke and Hoffmeister, all of whom only played for St. Paul in 1899. Date range of June 19-21, 1899, for the photo can be suggested by the appearance of Hoffmeister in combination with by the likelihood that this image was taken when the team played at Kansas City on these dates. Hoffmeister played his first game with St. Paul on May 27, 1899, after he was released from the Kansas City team in mid-May 1899. Therefore he was not on the St. Paul roster during the team’s first series of games played in Kansas City on April 28-30, 1899. Hoffmesiter was with St. Paul when they played their second series in Kansas City, June 19-21, appearing in the game played on June 21. Hoffmeister played his last game with St. Paul on July 4, 1899, and was subsequently released. In the days before August 5, 1899, Hoffmeister had signed with Armour, a touring team based in Kansas City. Therefore he was not with St. Paul when they played their third and final series in Kansas City, August 5-6. Pitchers McGill and Fricken, standing in the back row, wore street clothes when the photo was taken, possibly indicating they were not available to play on this day. In the second series in Kansas City played on June 19-21, McGill, who stood 5’6″, was the pitcher of the June 19 game, and therefore may have been unavailable to play on the following day, June 20. This may suggest the photo was taken on June 20. The location of Kansas City for this photo may also be suggested by the fact that owner Comiskey was not included in this image. During his tenure in St. Paul, Comiskey often included himself in photos of the team, usually when the team was photographed at home. Researcher Cary Smith has found a newspaper report from June 22, 1899, saying that Comiskey was in Chicago during these days testifying in litigation involving the club. Kansas City superintendent Charles Meyer organized photos of visiting Western League teams to be taken on the field in Kansas City during the 1898, 1899 and 1900 seasons. The photo above included the mark of “Meyer” and “K.C. Mo.” in the bottom corner of the image, though this wording is hard to see in photo B. Most of these photos had a white sheet draped behind the players, similar to the above photo. The photographer of these images was not credited. Players wore a uniform in this photo that was of a mid-tone color. The cap was in the pillbox style with subtle horizontal bands and may have been the same mid-tone color as the shirt. The belt and stockings may have been of a darker color. The short-sleeved shirt had white buttons, white lettering across the chest and a shirt pocket on the lower left side. One of the white buttons on the shirt overlapped the “P” in the city name, however the exact position of this button varied from shirt to shirt. The player sitting in the front at far right wore a cap of a slightly different style. Two of the eleven men in uniform in the photo wore their collar styled up. One player sitting far left wore a shirt in which the sleeves had been cut shorter by hand. During the late 1890s St Paul often wore a blue uniform with white stockings. It is likely the uniform in photo B was blue. However the stockings in photo B were clearly not white. A newspaper reported that at the start of the 1899 season Comiskey changed the stocking color to red.
Top row, from left: W Preston (StP 97-99, Min WL 99), D Lally (99), (W McGill StP 97, 99, Col WL 99), F Isbell (96-99) and (H Fricken 96-99). Middle: P Geier (98, 99, 05-07), R Denzer (95-99), C Fisher (99), B Glenalvin (97-99) and H Spies (96-99). Front: F Shugart (96-99), E Burke (99) and J Hoffmeister (StP 99, KC WL 99). Player IDs from a print of this image at the Detroit Public Library, Ernie Harwell Collection, which included identities on the photo frame (not shown above). Years players with team and dates of Hoffmeister’s first and last games with St. Paul from baseball-reference.com. Info on Hoffmeister’s release from Kansas City from The Sporting Life, May 20, 1899. Info on Hoffmeitser’s signing with Armour from The Sporting Life, August 5, 1899. Info on Comiskey in Chicago from the St. Paul Globe, June 22, 1899, with research from Cary Smith. Info on Charles Meyer from the Kansas City Times, October 13, 1898, with research from Ed Morton. Image scan from onmilwaukee.com.
Dated 1899, possibly June 19-21, 1899. Detail view of photo B. Detail view showed the city name in block letters across the front of the shirt. Note that the spacing between “St.” and “Paul” varied on some of the shirts, as did the position of the white button overlapping the letter “P.” These differences may suggest that some of the uniforms were fabricated at different times.
Photo C
Dated 1899, possibly August 5-6, 1899. Year of photo determined by the appearance of players Lally, Katoll, Ball and Burke, all of whom only played for St. Paul in 1899. Date range of photo suggested by the appearance of Katoll and Ball in combination with by the likelihood that this image was taken when the team played at Kansas City on these dates. Katoll signed with St. Paul on June 16, 1899 and played his first game with the team on June 23. Ball played his first game with St. Paul on July 6. Both men were only on the St. Paul roster for the team’s third and final visit to Kansas City, August 5-6, and both made appearances in this three-game series (August 6 was a doubleheader). The location of Kansas City for this photo may also be suggested by the fact that owner Comiskey was not included in this image. During his tenure in St. Paul, Comiskey often included himself in photos of the team, usually when the team was photographed at home. Researcher Cary Smith has found newspaper reports from August 4 and August 6, 1899, saying that during these days Comiskey was “ill at his home in Chicago and unable to rejoin his club” and a report from August 8, 1899, stating that Comiskey “arrived home [in St. Paul] ahead of the team, and it develops that he has been scouring the country for new talent.” Kansas City superintendent Charles Meyer organized photos of visiting Western League teams to be taken on the field in Kansas City during the 1898, 1899 and 1900 seasons. The photographer of these images was not credited and many of the photos included the mark of “Meyer” and “K.C. Mo.” in the bottom corner. Though the photo above did not include Meyer’s mark, the composition of the players and the white backdrop used behind the men was very similar to Meyer’s other photos from this period. Players wore a shirt of a mid-tone color in this photo combined with white or light gray pants. The shirts may have been the same that were worn in photo B. The pillbox-style caps were white or light gray, with two narrow horizontal bands of a mid-tone color. The stockings were of a dark color. As in photo A, the short-sleeved shirts had white buttons, white lettering across the chest and a shirt pocket on the lower left side. One of the white buttons on the shirt overlapped the “P” in the city name, however the exact position of this button varied from shirt to shirt. The player in the front row, far left, wore the same shirt with cut-off sleeves that he wore in photo B. This player’s stocking garter was also visible on his left leg in this photo. The player standing third from left wore a shirt of a similar mid-tone color but with no lettering across the front. This shirt also had lace ties, not buttons. The player sitting in the middle row far left wore a non-matching cap, one with a rounded crown and with colored trim on the cap’s ribbing. Earlier in the season, this player had belonged to the Rock Island team of the Western Association. In the 1899 Rock Island team photo, this player was shown wearing a similar cap to that shown in photo B. Three of the eleven players wore their shirt collar styled up. Note that the player sitting in the middle row, second from left, held a postcard or mail envelope in his hand. During the late 1890s St Paul often wore a blue uniform with white stockings. It is likely the uniform in this photo was blue. However a newspaper reported that for the 1899 season Comiskey had changed the stocking color to red.
Top row, from left: D Lally (99), R Denzer (95-99), J Katoll (StP 99, Chi NL 99) and unidentified. Middle: A Ball (StP 99, RI WA 99), F Isbell (96-99), B Glenalvin (97-99) and H Spies (96-99). Front: P Geier (98, 99, 05-07), E Burke (99) and F Shugart (96-99). The unidentified player may have been G Decker (StP 99, Was NL 99) or F Vaughn (StP 99, Cin NL 99). Decker player his last game for St. Paul on July 31, 1899. The August 12, 1899, issue of The Sporting Life noted that “the St. Paul Club has released George Decker, who has a badly split hand. Vaughn takes Decker’s place, and the latter goes home to California for a long rest.” Vaughn played his first game for St. Paul on August 2, 1899, and played in all three games of the series in Kansas City, August 5-6. However the identity of Vaughn in the photo cannot be confirmed. Player IDs from Carson Lorey. Years players with team, first dates that Katoll, Ball and Vaughn played with team and last date that Decker played with the team from baseball-reference.com. Katoll signing date from the Buffalo Times, June 18, 1899, info on Comiskey illness from the Detroit Free Press, August 4, 1899, and the Buffalo Courier, August 6, 1899, and report on Comiskey looking for talent from the St. Paul Globe, August 8, 1899, with research on all from Cary Smith. Info on Charles Meyer from the Kansas City Times, October 13, 1898, with research from Ed Morton. Image scan from the Detroit Public Library, Ernie Harwell Collection.
Dated 1899, possibly August 5-6, 1899. Detail view of photo C. Detail view showed a uniform shirt that was very similar to that worn in photo B. This detail view also suggests that the color of the lettering on the shirts was not white, but of a light color. The bands on the caps were also of a light or mid-tone color. Note the postcard or mail envelope held in the hand of the player sitting in center.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
April 1899: “’It is the finest lot of men I have ever had,’ said Comiskey, in speaking of his team. […] ‘I have ordered new uniforms with the old colors—white with red stockings.’ […] Every man who had an eye for the beautiful has groaned inwardly every time he looked at those faded blue suits with white stockings which, in happy days gone by, were white.” From the Kansas City Times, April 17, 1899. Research from Ed Morton.
April 1899: “The Victor Sporting Goods Company, of Springfield, Mass., is making quite a feature of uniforms. […] Among the more important clubs they have outfitted being the Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, St. Paul, Kansas City, Scranton and Reading Clubs.” From The Sporting Life, April 29, 1899.
August 1899: “Comiskey still practices with his players in the forenoon, but says he is out of the game for good.” From The Sporting Life, August 5, 1899.
Team genealogy: St. Paul 1895-1899
St. Paul joined the Western League (WL) in 1895 with the transfer of the Sioux City team. The WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and St. Paul played in the league through the 1899 season. The team was transferred to Chicago before the 1900 season when the league reformed as the American League. Information from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: September 12, 2021
Diggers on this uniform: Carson Lorey, Cary Smith, Ed Morton,