1871 Mansfield, Middletown CT

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:
May 1871: “Outfits [for Mansfield] consisted of white shirt and knee breeches trimmed in blue, blue stockings, white flannel hat with blue band and blue belt.” From Hartford Post, March 13, 1871. Research by David Arcidiacono, Major League Baseball In Gilded Age Connecticut (2009).

May 27, 1871, Mansfield, Middletown CN, v. Gaullidett, Hartford, at Hartford: “The Mansfields […] appeared for the first time in their new uniforms of white, with blue stockings and trimmings, also hats instead of caps.” From the New York Clipper, June 10, 1971.

Team genealogy: Mansfield, Middeltown CT, 1866-1872
Middletown was formed in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1866 and was named in honor of Gen. Joseph Mansfield (1803-1862), a Connecticut native killed during the Civil War. After remaining an amateur team through 1871, the Mansfield club joined the National Association (NA) in 1872. The NA was baseball’s first professional league, operating 1871-1875. Mansfield folded later in the 1872 season. Information from David Arcidiacono, Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012), and from wikipedia.