1900 Cleveland (Clevelands, Lake Shores, Babes, Revivals)
Before Guardians, before Indians, Cleveland had yet another nickname dilemma in 1900 – they had too many.
Resources today say the 1900 Cleveland American League team was called the “Lake Shores.” An interesting nickname, for sure — yet when you dig through the scans of local newspapers, you’ll find the team had two additional nicknames this year. Three names, one team. I wonder how Clevelanders dealt with this sudden identity crisis?
As we know, team nicknames were almost always the invention of the press in the 19th century. Names were created by writers and editors to enhance the character of the team, which in turn enhanced the sale of their newspapers. In the case of Cleveland, three local newspapers in 1900 vied to name the new team by each using a different moniker. If interested in learning more, please read on.
Yes, they were the Lake Shores.
1900 was a fresh start for Cleveland as they entered the new American League. Understandably, the desire was strong to leave the names of Spiders and Indians behind — but what to call the new club? In stepped Ban Johnson (of course). The Cleveland Leader reported on March 7, 1900, that “President Ban Johnson announced today the Cleveland team would probably be christened the ‘Lake Shores.’”
The next day, the Indianapolis News listed all eight American League nicknames including the new Lake Shores label. “Some of the names are appropriate,” commented the News, “while it is hard to account for the titles which others carry.” (Was the newspaper trolling Cleveland?)
The players reported to Cleveland in early April, and on April 6 the Cleveland Press noted that “scores of amateurs report at the [Cleveland] grounds every day for practice with the Lake Shores.” On April 17, the Press sent their sketch artist to League Park, see the results below. The caption for the montage read “The Lake Shores at practice.” Clearly, the Press was on board with Johnson’s suggested name.
Drawings of the Cleveland team practicing at League Park on April 16, 1900. Image from the Cleveland Press, April 17, 1900.
But, they were also the Babes, and the Revivals.
As the season began, a battle in newsprint ensued to nickname the team. The Press used “Lake Shores.” However, the Leader suddenly became intent on calling them the “Babes,” first used on April 19. A day later, the Cleveland Plain Dealer began using “Revivals” when describing the team at the season opener. Three names for one team. Each paper had different ownership and therefore each newspaper was a rival to the other. Was the goal to claim bragging rights for establishing a new name? And how long did the battle last?
Below is an examination of newspaper reports from 1900, most of which were penned by local writers.
April 20, 1900, season opener at Indianapolis
—Press: “Buelow led the Lake Shores in batting.”
—Leader: “The ‘Lake Shores’ or the ‘Babes,’ as they are generally known, have started the season in the proper fashion.”
—Plain Dealer: “The Revivals sprung their first surprise by taking the opening game.”
April 23, 1900, first game at Detroit
—Press: “The Lake Shores tallied three more on a gift to [Jack] White.”
—Leader: “The Lake Shores had the faculty of making their safe [hits] at the right time. […] Even ‘Bo’ Needham was confident that the Detroits would defeat the ‘Babes.’”
—Plain Dealer: “Although they were outbatted, the Revivals outplayed the Tigers.”
These first reports showed the three Cleveland papers presenting three different names, though the Leader, in an act of uncertainty, used both Lake Shores and Babes at this time.
April 26, 1900, first game v. Indianapolis, home opener
—Press: “Lake Shores played nervously, but good enough to beat the champion Hoosiers.”
—Leader: “[When] it looked as though [Indianapolis] would score, the “Babes” retired the side.”
—Plain Dealer: no nickname used, not even “the Clevelands”
April 30, 1900, first game v. Detroit at home
—Press: “The kind of pitching [Detroit’s Yeager] did against the Lake Shores, Monday, would have won nine games out of ten.”
—Leader: “The ‘Babes’ were outbatted, but there hits were timely.”
—Plain Dealer: “At present the Revivals are tied for first place.”
During the Detroit series, the Press published this quote from Cleveland manager McAleer: “I do expect the Lake Shores to give a good amount of themselves all season.” Now, we don’t know if Jimmy actually said this, or if this was the Press putting words in his mouth, but it may be actual “spoken-word” documentation of the nickname in use.
May 23, 1900, at home v. Chicago
—Press: “The Lake Shores, Wednesday, were fully alive to the fact that the base lines were laid down for sprinting purposes.”
—Leader: “Comiskey’s ‘White Stockings’ made their first appearance […] and the ‘Babes’ for a kind welcome nearly gave them a string of goose eggs.”
—Plain Dealer: no nickname used, not even “the Clevelands”
By the end of May, the Plain Dealer had stopped using Revivals. However, they seemingly refused to adopt either nickname used by the other newspapers for the remainder of the season.
July 3, 1900, at home v. Indianapolis
—Press: “Timely was the Lake Shores’ batting rally.”
—Leader: “The Babes pounded out a victory in one of those exciting rallies.”
—Plain Dealer: no nickname used, not even “the Clevelands”
On an unrelated note. The Cleveland Press had the following to say about the July 4 game in Cleveland: “It was a typical Fourth of July crowd. Fully 2000 of the spectators were armed with blank cartridge revolvers and every base hit by a man in white was rewarded by a tremendous volley. When a run would come in the uproar was deafening.” (Wow.)
August 13, 1900, at home v. Buffalo
—Press: “Genins enabled the rejuvenated and reconstructed Lake Shores to defeat the energetic, but erratic Bisons.”
—Leader: “Buffalo was the first team to meet the [reconstructed] ‘Babes.’”
—Plain Dealer: no nickname used, not even “the Clevelands”
September 6, 1900, v. Minneapolis, final home game
—Press: “The Lake Shores [are] off for the west.”
—Leader: “As a farewell performance the ‘Babes’ put up a fast and clean fielding game.”
—Plain Dealer: no nickname used, not even “the Clevelands”
The season ended on September 18 in Milwaukee. As you can see above, the Press and the Leader stuck to their guns. Two days later, the Leader published the batting statistics of the Cleveland players, calling them the “Averages of the ‘Babes.’”
Headlines from the Cleveland Leader, September 21, 1900.
At the start of the following season in 1901, the Leader again began calling the team the Babes. The Lake Shores name had been abandoned by the Press in 1901 and it was picked-up that year by a Cleveland amateur team.
SABR member David Bohmer, writing about the Cleveland team, said they “became the Bluebirds in 1901, for their blue uniforms, quickly shortened to the Blues.” SABR member Ed Coen said “in 1901 the Cleveland American League club had no nickname. In 1902 they were regularly known as the Blues.” After looking at the Plain Dealer, researcher Ken Samoil has written that “in 1901, the paper sometimes called them the Buckeyes.”
Conclusion: the name game.
We will never know what the locals actually called their team in 1900, if anything. And it is unclear how we, as historians, should list the 1900 team, Cleveland Lake Shores or Cleveland Babes? Both, in my opinion, meet the criteria of an “accepted” nickname — multiple uses over the length of a season and in reports written by local writers. Still, the subject of nicknames is a fascinating one, and also unavoidable when researching a team’s uniform history. From my perspective, team nicknames are the most misunderstood and misrepresented information we provide as researchers. If you’re writing about baseball history, please check original sources. And as this Cleveland example tells us, checking multiple newspaper titles will give you the complete story.
19th-century Cleveland newspapers.
Here is a quick summary of Cleveland newspapers from Case Western Reserve University. The Cleveland Herald became the city’s first newspaper daily in 1835. The Plain Dealer arrived as a daily in 1845, the Leader in 1854, and together the two each bought out half of the Herald in 1885. The Press arrived in 1878 and around the time when newspapers were changing from political organs to items of independent journalism. There were six established dailies publishing in 1900, called by Case Western as “the golden age of Cleveland journalism.” In 1905, the largest of the six papers was the Press (circulation 141,314), followed by the Plain Dealer (77,856) and the Leader (53,000).
—Thank you for your time. If you have information to share about this team and its many nicknames, please contact me. Thanks to Terry Sloope for discovering the multiple nicknames and helping research this team, and to Ken Samoil for the Plain Dealer photos below. Info on the Cleveland nickname after 1900 from David Bohmer, SABR Team Ownership History Project: Cleveland Guardians, retrieved July 23, 2025, from Ed Coen, SABR Fall 2019 Baseball Research Journal: Setting the Record Straight on Major League Team Nicknames, also retrieved July 23, 2025, and from Ken Samoil in an email to Threads. Information on Cleveland newspapers from Case Western Reserve University, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Print Journalism, retrieved July 23, 2025.
Renderings at top: These rendering are 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 renderings.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated April 17, 1900. This drawing of a Cleveland player at League Park was published on this day, and “sketched from the grandstand” during a practice session on April 16. The drawing was likely based on a photograph. A newspaper reported on April 6 that “the new uniforms are very natty” and that “they will be donned for the first time at Indianapolis, April 19.” This may suggest that the new suits had arrived in Cleveland and were therefore worn during the April 16 practice session, possibly for the benefit of the newspaper artist. Image from the Cleveland Press, April 17, 1900.
Photo B
Dated April 22, 1900, image taken before April 19, 1900. Pre-season photo of the Cleveland team published on April 22 and taken before the team left to start the season on the road on April 19. Players were wearing uniforms from previous seasons in the photo. Player Hart, top row fourth from left, wore a St. Louis uniform. Hart played for St. Louis (NL) in 1897 and Pittsburgh in 1898. He was out of baseball in 1899 and may have been lured back to play in the new American League in 1900. Three players in the photo wore old Cleveland uniforms, including players Wilson and Pickering in the back row. Wilson played for Cleveland (NL) from 1895 to 1899 and Pickering played for Cleveland (NL) in 1897 and then with other Western League teams in 1898 and 1899. The lettering on the shirts matched photos of the 1898 Cleveland uniform.
Top row, from left: J McAleer (Cle 89-98, 00 01, You ISL mg 99), P Crisham (New NEL 97, Pro EL 98, Bro NL 99, Cle 00), B Hoffer (Bal NL 97, 98, Pit NL 98, 99, Cle 00), B Hart (Stl NL 97, Pit NL 98, Cle 00), Z Wilson (Cle 97, 98, StL 99, Cle 00), O Pickering (Lou NL 97, Cle 97, Oma WL 98, Buf WL 99, Col WL 99, Cle 00) and unidentified. Middle: F Genins (Col WL 97-99, Cle 00), W Diggins (WB EL 97, Buf 98, 99 EL, WL, Cle 00), unidentified, R Viox (StJ WL 97, KC WL 98, 99, Mil WL 99, Cle 00) and L Bierbauer (StL 97, 98, Col WL 99, Cle 00). Front: C Buelow (Col WL 99, Roc WA 99, Cle 00) and unidentified. Player IDs of Bierbauer, Buelow, Crisham, Diggins, Genins, Hoffer, McAleer, Pickering, Viox and Wilson determined by individual photos of these players published on the same day as the team photo, and by the same newspaper, see three of these images below. Additional IDs and image scan from Ken Samoil. The following players were listed on a team roster published April 11 and not identified above: R Egan, King, C LaChance, K McKenna, Pardee, H Spies, Stafford and J White. We know that Egan, LaChance and McKenna, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on April 17, signed late and were to first join the team at the start the season in Indianapolis on April 19. Therefore the unidentified may be three of the following: King, Pardee, Spies, Stafford and White. King, Pardee and Stafford did not play in a regulation game for this team. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 1900.
Dated April 22, 1900, image taken before April 19, 1900. Detail view of photo B. Detail view showed players at left wearing a Cleveland uniform that matched that worn during the 1898 NL season.
Photos C, D & E
Dated April 22, 1900, images taken before April 19, 1900. These images of three players practicing at League Park in Cleveland were published on this day, and were likely made on the same day as the team photo above. In all, photos of ten players were published on this day, and each wore a uniform from a previous season. Images from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 1900.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1900: “The [Cleveland] club’s uniform has been adopted. At home the members of the team will wear white suits with, blue stockings, and navy blue caps. Abroad the team will wear the customary gray suit, but the stockings and cap will be the same as at home.” From the Cleveland Leader, March 31, 1900.
April 1900: “Manager McAleer is not a believer in gaudy uniforms. ‘A man all decked out in red and gold can’t help playing in the grand stand,’ is his philosophy.” From the Cleveland Press, April 3, 1900.
April 1900: “Scores of amateurs report at the [Cleveland] grounds every day for practice with the Lake Shores. The new uniforms are very natty. They will be donned for the first time at Indianapolis, April 19.” From the Cleveland Press, April 6, 1900. The April 19 date was rained out and the season opener took place on April 20.
April 20, 1900, Cleveland v. Indianapolis, at Indianapolis, home opener: “The Cleveland players wore natty gray uniforms, with dark trimmings.” From the Indianapolis News, April 20, 1900, page 11. Research from Chuck McGill.
April 20, 1900, Cleveland v. Indianapolis, at Indianapolis, home opener: “Both teams made a natty appearance, the Indianapolis men attired in their white uniforms and the Cleveland players in gray.” From the Indianapolis Journal, April 21, 1900.
April 23, 1900, Cleveland v. Detroit, at Detroit: “The elements of luck [for Cleveland] were a gray uniform with the blue trimmings.” From the Detroit News, April 24, 1900. Research from Terry Sloope.
April 1900: “Cleveland will make her home debut in American League society this afternoon [April 26]. When the club appears on the grounds this afternoon in their bright new white uniforms with light blue trimmings, they will be greeted by an immense crowd.” From the Cleveland Leader, April 26, 1900. Research from Terry Sloope.
July 4, 1900, Cleveland v. Indianapolis, at Cleveland, morning game: “The Lake Shores had a little luck in the seventh, getting two runs without a hit. […] It was a typical Fourth of July crowd. Fully 2000 of the spectators were armed with blank cartridge revolvers and every base hit by a man in white was rewarded by a tremendous volley. When a run would come in the uproar was deafening.” From the Cleveland Press, July 4, 1900.
Team genealogy: Cleveland, 1900-
The Cleveland team was formed as an inaugural member of the minor-league American League (AL) in 1900, and by receiving the roster of the Grand Rapids team of the Western League. The AL declared major-league status for the 1901 season and Cleveland has played in the league every year to the present day.
Rendering posted: July 24, 2025
Diggers on this uniform: Chuck McGill, Ken Samoil, Terry Sloope,