1871 Chicago (Chicagos, White Stockings)
This rendering is based on inconclusive 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 April 1871. Collage of player portraits. Full view at left, detail view at right. Year of collage confirmed by appearance of players Simmons and Foley, who only played for Chicago in 1871. Date of April 1871 determined by player Atwater, who was signed by Chicago but was released before the season started. Chicago’s first game in the National Association was May 8, 1871. The poor quality of the image scan does not allow for an analysis of the uniform.
Clockwise from top: J Simmons (71), E Pinkham (70, 71), B McAtte (70, 71), M King (70, 71), E Atwater (dnp), G Zettlein (71, 75), T Foley (71), C Hodes (70, 71), E Duffy (70, 71) and F Treacey (70, 71, 74). Center: J Wood (70, 71). Player IDs from collage. Years with team from Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012), from Marshall Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (2000), from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Atwater info from Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012)
Photo B
Dated 1870 or 1871. Cabinet photo of J Wood (70, 71). Full view at left, detail view at right. Player wore a uniform that matched contemporary newspaper accounts describing the Chicago uniform: white shirt, blue pants and white stockings. Detail view showed that the shirt may have had a single opening on one side of the bib, near the player’s right arm. There may have been a letter “C” in the center of the bib in a light blue color that did not reproduce well in photography. The hairstyle of the player was very similar to that shown in the 1870 team photo. Therefore this portrait may have been made on the same day as the team photo dating from September to October 1870. Player ID from Al Spink, who included this photo in his book, Spink Sport Stories (1921). Spink also dated the photo of Wood with the photo caption: “just as he looked in the year 1871.” Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Original image by Charles D. Mosher, Chicago.
Photo C
Photo dated October 1871, card produced 1910. Printed caption on photo frame stated that this image was of the Chicago team “as they appeared in their first match after the great Chicago fire in which their uniforms were destroyed.” The team’s first National Association games after the October 8-10, 1871, fire played in Troy, NY, on October 21 and 23, 1871. This photo was printed as a post card produced in 1910 with a copyright of John Fleming, Troy, NY. An auction house wrote that this post card was produced by “John Fleming, a New York printer.” Players wore a variety of hats and shirts in this photo. At least two different bib styles can be seen. The pants were light in color and the stockings were white. A newspaper report on October 22 said that “with […] two exceptions, [players] Foley and Wood, every member of the Club lost all he had in the world.” It is unknown if this meant their uniforms were not destroyed. See the October 30, 1871 entry in the written descriptions below for more information on the uniforms worn after the fire.
Top row, standing from left: B McAtte (70, 71), C Hodes (70, 71), T Foley (71), M King (70, 71), E Pinkham (70, 71) and J Simmons (71). Front row, sitting: G Zettlein (71, 75), J Wood (70, 71), F Treacey (70, 71, 74), J Carroll (?) and E Duffy (70, 71). Player IDs from item. Identification of player Carroll cannot be confirmed and this player may instead be M Brannock (71, 75), who joined Chicago in late October 1871 for the final 3 games of the season. Years with team from Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012), from Marshall Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (2000), from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Atwater info from Base Ball Pioneers. Brannock info from Players and Teams of the National Association. Troy game dates from retrosheet.org.
Photo D
Hand-dated 1871, possibly October 21 or 23, 1871. Cropped version of photo. The uncropped version showed two teams on a baseball field. A stereoscopic version of the image had the names of the two teams (Chicago and Troy) and the year of 1871 handwritten on the back of the image. If these identities and date were accurate, the photo can possibly be dated as from either October 21 or 23, 1871, when Chicago played at the Troy Ball Ground. These were the first games for Chicago after the Chicago fire destroyed the team’s grounds and uniforms. The Chicago players were photographed wearing a white uniform. The poor quality of the original does not show specific uniform details but it was clear that the players wore a variety of different caps at this game. Most players wore white stockings in this photo but a few wore white stockings with dark-colored bands. Note that these uniforms do not match up exactly with those shown in photo C. October game dates from retrosheet.org. Information on back of image from a stereoscopic card owned by Mark Rucker.
Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1871: “The Athletics will wear blue stockings, and also the Olympics. The Chicagoans will wear white stockings, and the Mutuals green. The Haymakers will wear blue checked stockings, and the Boston nine the red stockings. As the professional nines will wear breeches and stockings, it would be as well for the amateurs to have their uniforms of the patterns of the Stars, Actives, Harvards, Excelsiors, etc., with suits of one color or blue pants, white shirts and blue caps.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 3, 1871. Research from Don Stokes.
April 1871: “Below we give a complete list, arranged alphabetically, of the regular professional nines which have completed their organization for the season: Atlantic of Brooklyn, share gate money; Athletic of Philadelphia, pay players by salary; Boston of Boston, stock company; Chicago of Chicago, stock company; Eckford of Brooklyn, share gate money; Forest City of Cleveland, pay players by salary; Forest City of Rockford, share gate money; Haymakers of Troy, stock company; Kekiongas of Fort Wayne, share gate money; Mutuals of New York, pay players by salary; National of Washington, share gate money; Olympic of Washington, stock company.” From the Buffalo Express, April 29, 1871, page 4. Research from Ed Morton.
April 29, 1871, Chicago v. picked nine, at Chicago, Union Grounds, exhibition game: “The White Stockings exciting a vast amount of favorable comment by their […] new uniforms, which are substantially the same style as those worn last year, the only difference being that the pants are of a trifle darker shade of blue, while instead of caps, a tasty white cloth hat, trimmed with blue cord, is worn.” From the Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1871. Research from Don Stokes.
Early 1871, advertisement: “Photographs of the White Stockings. We have issued the only correct photographs of all the members of the Chicago Base Ball Club in one group. Small cards by mail prepaid, 15 cents; larger ones, 75 cents and $1.50. In polished walnut frames, $2.50 to $5; sent by express. Liberal discount to dealers. Address J. A. Pierce & Co.” From a Peck & Snyder advertisement in the Beadle Base Ball Guide 1871. Research from John Thorn, Our Game blog, retrieved June 6, 2020. Thorn added: These portraits were also presented as cameos, for the 1871 season, within a carte de visite for each professional league club.”
May 29, 1871, Chicago v. Eckford, Brooklyn, at Brooklyn, exhibition game: “We were in hopes the Chicago Club directors would have had the good sense to have altered the trumpery-looking fantastic uniforms of the White Stockings for something neater and more serviceable, but we were disappointed, as the boys made their appearance on the field in the old uniform, looking for all the world like a lot of acrobats at a country fair.” From the Spirit of the Times, June 3, 1871, page 244. Research from Ed Morton.
June 1871: “The directors of the [Chicago] club ought to really dress the nine in a less outlandish costume than the one at which they are presently attired. It is the most tin-pot, Dutch tinselly-looking thing we ever saw, and created ridicule wherever it is exhibited.” From the New York Dispatch, June 4, 1871. Research from Richard Hershberger.
July 1871: “The Chicago Times of [June] 29th says that Chicagos have taken a ‘new departure.’ The whole nine is to be reorganized — the field, the batting order and the uniform. […] The new uniforms are to be white throughout, with a red string and bow at the top of the stockings, caps white and no trimmings.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 1, 1871, page 3. Research from Ed Morton.
August 3, 1871, Chicago v. Forest City, Rockford IL, at Chicago: “The Forest City of Rockford played the first game of their tour on Monday last [August 3] in Chicago, defeating the White Stockings by a score of six to seven. The Whites were completely outplayed at every point.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 4, 1871, page 3. Research from Ed Morton.
October 1871: “With the fire went the famous Chicago Baseball Club and all hopes for the championship. With but two exceptions, Foley and Wood, every member of the Club lost all he had in the world, and after the fire they left the city, going directly to New York, where they will finish their engagements with Eastern Clubs, the proceeds to be distributed amongst themselves in equal proportions. […] Their first game will in all probability be with the Haymakers on the Union Grounds, Brooklyn, on Saturday [Note that this game was played in Troy on October 21].” From the San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 1871. Research from the SABR Pictorial Committee, posted to x.com on October 21, 2024.
October 30, 1871, Chicago v. Athletic, Philadelphia, at Philadelphia, Union Grounds. “The Chicago club, it will be remembered, lost everything but their lives in the late fire. [In the game] Pinkham wore a Mutual [New York] shirt, a pair of Mutual pants and a pair of red stockings. Brannock wore a complete Mutual uniform with the exception of the belt, which belonged to one of the Eckfords [Brooklyn]. Foley wore an Eckford suit out and out. Zettlein—‘him of the big feet’—wore a huge shirt with a mammoth ‘A’ on the bosom, and Duffy appeared as a Fly Awayer [New York amateur team]. Some wore black hats, some wore caps, a few had regular ball hats, while others played bareheaded.” From the New York Herald, October 31, 1871. In his book, Baseball 1845-1881 From Newspaper Accounts, historian Preston Orem included the passage above from the Herald and wrote that “Chicago appeared in suits of various hues and makes, ludicrous in extreme.” He also noted that player Brannock had been “picked up for the eastern trip” by Chicago. Orem included a box score of the October 30 game and it confirmed that Chicago players McAtee, Treacy, Simmons and Hodes took part in the game but that their uniforms were not mentioned in the descriptions above. October 30 game date from retrosheet.org.
October 1871, retold in 1982: “Peck & Snyder refused to give the [Chicago] Whites new uniforms on credit, so they had to borrow an odd collection from the New York Mutuals, the Brooklyn Eckfords, and even the Junior Fly Aways.” Mark Rucker and Lew Lipset, The National Pastime. The Early Years: A Gallery. SABR Publication 1982.
Team genealogy: Chicago 1870-1871
Chicago was formed for the 1870 baseball season and joined the National Association (NA) in 1871. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. The Great Chicago Fire in October 1871 forced Chicago to disband after the 1871 season and subsequently miss the following two years. They rejoined the NA in 1874. –Information from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875, and from baseball-reference.com.
Rendering posted: May 12, 2019
Diggers on this uniform: Don Stokes, Ed Morton, Richard Hershberger,