1871 Olympic, Washington DC (Olympics, Blue Stockings)
This rendering is based on written documentation only 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
Visual documentation on this uniform:
None
Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1871: “[In the National Association] 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.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 3, 1871. Research from Don Stokes.
March 1871: “Monday night [March 6] the directors of the Olympic Club gave a grand supper to their new nine, in the course of which the president of the club designated Mr. Charles J. Sweasy as captain of the nine. […] The new uniform of the nine was also decided upon. It will consist of a white flannel Zouave suit, trimmed with blue, hat instead of cap, close-fitting knit shirt, over jacket, corded pants, blue stockings, and white canvas shoes, with letter leather trimmings.” From the Washington (DC) Daily Patriot, March 8, 1871, page 4. Research from Ed Morton.
March 1871: “The Olympic Club of Washington is now fully prepared for the coming base-ball season. […] The blue-stocking uniform has been retained, substituting a white hat with blue trimmings for the cap, and a knit shirt with flannel over-jacket, for the heavy shirt of last season.” From the Washington (DC) Chronicle, March 9, 1871, page 4. Research from Ed Morton.
March 1871: “The Olympic Baseball Club have elected Sweasy to captain their nine this season, and adopted a new uniform — white jacket, trimmed with blue, tight undershirt; caps to be replaced by a hat, trimmed with blue, blue stockings, and white shoes.” From the New York Sunday Mercury, March 12, 1871, page 7.
March 1871: “The uniform adopted [by Olympic] is white canvas shoes, blue stockings, white pants and shirt, trimmed with blue, blue belt and white hat with blue band. The shirts will be light gauze with short sleeves. A knit jacket will be worn when not in play.” From the New York Clipper, March 18, 1871. Research from Brian McKenna.
April 6, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. amateur team, at Washington, Olympic Club grounds, exhibition game: “A large number of those interested in base ball and its ‘tossers’ assembled on the grounds of the Olympic Club, corner of Sixteenth and R streets, yesterday [April 6] to witness the game between the professional nine and the amateurs. […] The ‘Blue Stockings’ have a neat uniform, consisting of white shirts, pants, in short sailor jackets, trim[med] with the blue, a jaunty, jockey hat, and blue stockings.” From the Washington (DC) Chronicle, April 7, 1871, page 4. Research from Ed Morton.
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.
May 1871: “The first grand match of the [championship] series will take place in Washington [DC] on Thursday, May 4th, between the Boston ‘Red Stockings’ and the Olympic ‘Blue Stockings’ of Washington.” From the New York Clipper, May 6, 1871.
May 5, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Boston, at Washington, Olympic Base Ball Grounds, home opener: “Washington, May 5 — Today may be pronounced an epoch in this year’s annals of base ball, for several reasons, chief among which are the facts that it records the opening of the first professional game of the season for the championship of the United states, and that the participants embrace the entire first nine of the old Cincinnati Red Stocking club, torn from their western admirers and doing duty, four in Boston as short-stop, centre-fielder, right-fielder and first-base man of the Boston club, while the remaining five as catcher, pitcher, left-fielder and second and third base men, are working with a will for the credit and renown of the Olympic Blue Stockings of this city. […] From this time until the end of the seventh inning the game was somewhat tedious, the score being fifteen to twelve in favor of the Blue Stockings. In the eighth inning the Olympics made three, which brought their score up to eighteen.” From the Boston Evening Transcript, May 6, 1871. This report called the Washington team the “Olympics,” as well as the “Blue Stockings.”
May 5, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Boston, at Washington, Olympic Base Ball Grounds, home opener: “Red Stockings, of Boston, vs. Blue Stockings, of the city — the great game between these clubs, which was to have come off yesterday [May 4], commences this afternoon at 4 o’clock, on the Olympic grounds. The Red Stockings will play their same nine as with the Nationals, and the Blue Stockings will play short of their captain, Sweasy, who is sick. […] The Western Union Telegraph company have a wire running out to the grounds from once they will telegraph each inning direct to Boston and Cincinnati.” From the Washington (DC) Evening Star, May 5, 1871, page 4.
May 5, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Boston, at Washington, Olympic Base Ball Grounds, home opener: “In the second inning […] the Red Stockings for their share drew a blank. Scored ten to one in favor of the Blue Stockings. […] The Blues were playing their field in magnificent style.” From the Cleveland Leader, May 6, 1871, page 1, citing a Washington dispatch.
May 15, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Kekionga, at Ft. Wayne, IN: “The clubs were well matched, except in pitching, in which Matthews [of Kekionga] excelled [over] Brainard, and during the entire game the Blue Stockings [i.e., Olympic] were unable to bat his pitching.” From the Washington Evening Star, May 18, 1871.
May 27, 1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Boston, at Brooklyn, Union Grounds: “We never saw a more finished display of the beauties of the game than on the occasion of the third game played between Harry Wright’s Red Stocking nine, of Boston, and the Blue Stocking nine of the Olympic Club, of Washington.” From the New York Clipper, June 3, 1871.
1871, Olympic, Washington DC, v. Forest City, Cleveland, at Ft. Wayne: “Both wore same uniform, white knee-clouts and shirts, blue stockings and belts. Eastern team with ‘O’ in blue on breast and blue-trimmed hats.” From Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), referencing an untitled Ft. Wayne newspaper from 1871.
Team genealogy: Olympic, Washington DC 1865-1872
Olympic was formed in Washington, DC, in 1865. The club played in the National Association (NA) in 1871 and 1872. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. Olympic folded during the 1872 season. –Information from Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012).
Rendering posted: July 20, 2014
Diggers on this uniform: Brian McKenna, Don Stokes, Ed Morton,