1898 Ottawa (Ottawas)
This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style only. An educated guess is made on uniform color and on minor details that may be missing or difficult to determine.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on this uniform:
Photo A
Dated August 1, 1898, photo of the Ottawa team wearing tartan uniforms. Photo date determined by historian Tom Shieber, who found a mention of this photo in an Ottawa newspaper on the following day. One month earlier, in early July 1898, the Eastern League franchise in Rochester was sold and transferred to Ottawa, and the team played their first game as Ottawa on July 13, 1898 at Syracuse. SABR researcher Gary Belleville has noted that the first home game was played in Ottawa on July 15 with the team “still wearing Rochester uniforms.” Ottawa first wore their new tartan uniforms at home on August 1, 1898. A local newspaper noted that on this day the “new uniforms [were] presented to them by Mr. McNeil, the tailor.” The report also said the team marched from their hotel in Ottawa “to Mr. McNeil’s, where they were photographed, and thence to Metropolitan grounds” to play both games of a doubleheader. Shieber has found that the tailor was James R. McNeil, who operated a shop at 203 Sparks Street. In the team photo, this same street number can be seen above the shop entrance and confirms this was the location of the photo. Undoubtedly the man standing in the middle of this image was McNeil. The players wore a dark uniform with a tartan pattern in this photo. The stockings were dark in color and the cap, lettering and belt in this photo were white or light in color. Newspaper accounts described the uniform as gray in color with red stockings, red collars and red cuffs. The shirts featured “smoked pearl buttons” and the caps were white.
Top row, from left, not counting bagpipers and other extras: B McHale (Roc/Ott EL 98, Was NL 98, Ham CL 98), M Kelley Roc/Ott EL 98, NewNEL 98), (J McNeil?, tailor), F Boyd (Roc/Ott EL 98) and unidentified. Front: B Keister (Roc/Ott EL 98, Bos NL 98), J Bean (Roc/Ott EL 98, New NEL 98), J Walters? (Roc/Ott EL 98, Pro EL 98), J Gunson (Roc/Ott 98 EL), F Bonner? (Roc/Ott 98 EL), unidentified, G Harper (Roc/Ott EL 98) and E Horton (Roc/Ott EL 98, Bro NL 98, Buf EL 98). Based on box scores from the August 1, 1898, doubleheader in Ottawa, the two unidentified players were most likely B Clymer (Roc/Ott 98 EL) possibly in the top row, and G Gannon (Roc/Ott EL 98, New NEL 98) possibly in the front row. Player IDs excluding Walters, Bonner, Clymer and Gannon from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee. Additional player IDs from Ken Samoil and Carson Lorey. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image research and scan from Tom Shieber, baseball-researcher blog, posted November 12, 2012, citing the Ottawa Citizen, August 2, 1898, and for the first game in Syracuse, The Sporting Life, July 16, 1898. Retrieved January 11, 2021. Info on first home game from Gary Belleville, SABR Games Project, July 19, 1898: Jimmy ‘Gussie’ Gannon leads Ottawa to its first home victory in professional baseball, citing the Ottawa Citizen, July 16, 1898. Retrieved July 2, 2023. Box scores of doubleheader on August 1 from The Sporting Life, August 9, 1898. Original image in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY. The original cardboard mount was inscribed by hand with the incorrect date of 1897. The photo mount also has been trimmed down in size revealing only a small portion of the photographer’s name. Based on this partial mark, Shieber has been able to determine that the image was made by the photo studio of Henry W. Sproule and Nicholas R. O’Connor, Ottawa.
Dated August 1, 1898, detail view of photo A. Detail view showed tartan pattern on uniforms, and that the collars and cuffs were solid in color. The city name arched across the shirt and extended to the armpits. Note that the first “A” in Ottawa was centered on the button placket, causing the city name to be off-centered on the shirt. The first “A” also was overlapped by a shirt button. The cap had two black marks above the brim. One newspaper account stated that the cap was a “white peaked cap with red band.”
Written documentation on this uniform:
July 1898: “The colors of the Ottawas are red, white and black. Buy the ribbon and attend Friday’s game [July 15 home opener].” From the Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 1898, p. 8. Research from Steve Rennie, who adds: “This article was published eight days before the article that mentioned the team would play in uniforms made by the tailor McNeil. So it seems the plan was always to play in these colours.” This report also included the following: “Please don’t bring any flowers or present any bouquets to our team. Flowers are the greatest of all hoodoos, and many a crack player has taken a balloon ascension from being made the recipient. Just carry a rabbit’s foot in your pocket.”
July 15, 1898, Ottawa v. Syracuse, at Ottawa, home opener: “The umpire was ‘jollied,’ […] his decisions were not favorable to the boys in blue.” From the Ottawa Citizen, July 16, 1898. This report tells us that the Ottawa team was wearing Rochester’s blue uniforms for this game.
July 15 and 17, 1898, Ottawa v. Syracuse, at Ottawa, Lansdowne Park, first games at home: “Ottawa’s initial entry into what was known as Organized Baseball got off to a rough start. The cast of colorful characters − still wearing Rochester uniforms − lost their first two home games by a combined score of 18-8.” From Gary Belleville, SABR Games Project, July 19, 1898: Jimmy ‘Gussie’ Gannon leads Ottawa to its first home victory in professional baseball, citing the Ottawa Citizen, July 16, 1898. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
July 17, 1898, Ottawa v. Syracuse, at Ottawa: “The Ottawa boys must have played hot ball somewhere to melt all those letters off their shirts.” From the Ottawa Citizen, July 18, 1898. This report implied the letters had been removed from the Rochester uniforms.
July 17, 1898, Ottawa v. Syracuse, at Ottawa: “The Rochester hoodoo is still with the Ottawa nine, and until the Capital’s sphere hitters don their new uniform the mascot […] will refuse to attend to business.” From the Ottawa Journal, July 18, 1898.
July 1898: “J.R. McNeil, the Sparks street tailor, is to the fore just at present as far as baseball is concerned, having yesterday [July 19] presented the team with suits. The clothes are yet not completed, but will be ere [i.e., before] long. The color is grey with red trimming.” From the Ottawa Citizen, July 20, 1898, p. 6. Research from Steve Rennie.
July 1898: “The Ottawa baseball team will appear in the new suits presented to them by Mr. J.R. NcNeil for the first time on Monday morning [August 1]. The club’s colors are red, white and tartan. The shirts and knickerbockers are made out of the McNeil tartan, the former having red collars and cuffs, with smoked pearl buttons. The players will wear a white peaked cap with red band, and red stockings. The costume is said to be unique, striking and attractive. Mr. McNeil is to be congratulated upon his generous gift.” From the Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 1898, p. 1. Research from Steve Rennie.
August 1, 1898, Ottawa vs. Wilkes-Barre at Ottawa, Metropolitan Grounds: “Baseball Monday was ushered in with a grand flourish of bagpipes, the home team wearing for the first time their new uniforms presented to them by Mr. McNeil, the tailor. The gathering of the Clans [i.e., parade participants] took place at the Grand Union Hotel from where the march started, first to Mr. McNeil’s, where they were photographed, and thence to Metropolitan grounds.” From the Ottawa Citizen, August 2, 1898. Research from Tom Shieber.
August 1898, letter from “Olympian” to the sports editor of the Ottawa Journal: “Sir, The other day a friend took me to see the ‘ball game’ he called it, between some youths of Ottawa and others of Wilk-something in the U.S. The teams were distinguished by their dress; the Ottawa man being clad in what my friend said was the McBingham tartan (chosen out of compliment to the police magistrate of this city), and the others [i.e., Wilkes-Barre] in black.” From the Ottawa Journal, August 4, 1898. Research from Steve Rennie, who noted that “Samuel Bingham was Ottawa’s mayor in 1897 and 1898, at the time this article was published (I can’t find any evidence of him being a police magistrate, as the article claims). The article is called ‘New to Baseball,’ and it seems to be a humorous take on the author’s first ball game. Of note, there is no Bingham or McBingham tartan registered in the Scottish Register of Tartans.”
August 1898: “The Ottawa Citizen generously labeled the team the ‘most stylish looking aggregation in the league.’ On the other hand, the Providence Journal thought the uniforms were ‘ridiculous,’ and the Buffalo Commercial felt they gave the Ottawas a ‘ludicrous appearance.’” From Gary Belleville, SABR Games Project, July 19, 1898: Jimmy ‘Gussie’ Gannon leads Ottawa to its first home victory in professional baseball, citing the Ottawa Citizen, August 2, 1898, the Sporting Life, September 17, 1898, and the Buffalo Commercial, September 3, 1898. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
August 1898: “The sensation of the year at Montreal are the suits of the Ottawa baseball team. The whole city are raving about them, and they are generally conceded to be the nicest piece of bric-a-brac that has decorated the Montreal ball grounds this season. They are even writing poetry about those suits. The [Montreal] Herald has the following effusion: A splurge of solferino/A dash of blue and cream/Some red, some green, some yellow/The whole a fairy dream/You think perhaps I’m singing/Of a rainbow that’s a beaut/But there you are mistaken/For it’s Ottawa’s new suit.” From the Ottawa Journal, August 16, 1898. Research from Steve Rennie. Rennie adds that red, black and white are colors typically associated with Ottawa sports teams. “Since at least 1890, Ottawa teams have worn those colours. The Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club’s uniforms were red, black, and white. The Ottawa Senators hockey teams (both the original franchise and the modern-day club) also wear those colours, along with teams like the defunct Ottawa Rough Riders football team, several baseball teams, and present day clubs like the Ottawa RedBlacks and Ottawa Titans.” Researcher Gary Belleville has noted that the Ottawa Citizen on August 19, 1898, transcribed one line in the poem as “Some blue, some green, some yellow,” listing blue instead of red. Belleville info from SABR Games Project, July 19, 1898: Jimmy ‘Gussie’ Gannon leads Ottawa to its first home victory in professional baseball. Retrieved July 2, 2023. Belleville also adds that “solferino” is a moderate purplish-red color.
Team genealogy: Ottawa 1898-1898
Ottawa joined the Eastern League (EL) in early July 1898 with the transfer of the Rochester franchise. The EL operated between 1891 and 1911 and became the International League in 1912. Ottawa dropped out of the EL after the 1898 season. Information from Bill O’Neal, The International League (1992). The transfer date of the franchise was listed as July 12, 1898, by O’Neal and as July 7, 1898, by Baseball America, Inc., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1997).
Rendering posted: January 15, 2021
Diggers on this uniform: Carson Lorey, Ken Samoil, Mark Fimoff, Steve Rennie, Tom Shieber,