1895 Detroit (Detroits, Tigers)
These renderings are based on incomplete 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
New evidence on the origin of the Detroit Tigers’ nickname.
Tigers. We know it was first used in print in Detroit on April 16, 1895 -– the thing is, we’re not sure why? Inexplicably, newspapers never offered up its origin. It just appeared on the pages of the Detroit Free Press — and it has been used in association with the baseball team ever since.
Around 1907, George Stallings gave us the “striped-sock origin story,” and this tale has been passed down for decades. But as many now know, there is no documentation of the team wearing tiger hose before 1901. What’s more, Stallings wasn’t with the team in 1895.
In his 1998 book, A Place for Summer, Richard Bak suggested the “Detroit Light Guard origin story.” The Guard was a popular local militia that used a tiger-head as their crest in the late 19th century. A plausible theory, but no definitive connection has ever been made. Now Bak’s suggestion is passed down from blogger to blogger, sometimes presented as fact. To see all of the different theories behind this nickname, see the written descriptions below.
So the question lingers: why Tigers in 1895?
Well, I believe the Free Press has held the answer this entire time — take a look at these tiger stripes.
Dated May 22, 1895. This illustration, full view at left, detail view at right, was published on this date as part of a report of the Detroit-Minneapolis game played on May 21, 1895. The Detroit player-coach was depicted wearing a broadly striped sweater with a large collar hanging across the back of the shoulders. The player also wore a black pillbox-style cap, white quilted pants and black stockings. Team sweaters were in demand this week. Weather reports from Detroit stated that the temperature was “abnormally low, equal to the normal of the middle of April.” Image and weather report from the Detroit Free Press, May 22, 1895.
The “sweater origin theory” was first offered a few years back by designer-researcher Todd Radom. He found a reference from 1897 labeling the team as the “men of the striped sweaters.” He also found a report from 1899 stating that the “Detroits have abandoned their old striped jackets [and now] the nickname Tigers has no direct application.” These entries suggested that the sweaters and the nickname were certainly related, however no one could find evidence of striped sweaters in use in 1895. Until now.
Dated May 23, 1895. This illustration of R Gayle (94, 95, 97), full view at left, detail view at right, was published one day after the illustration above. This drawing was likely to have been based on a photo taken before the Detroit-Minneapolis game played on May 22, 1895. The pitcher, captured in warm-up mode, was depicted wearing the same type of sweater as shown in the player-coach illustration. In the Gayle rendering, the sweater was worn with dark blue pants and black stockings. Image and player ID from the Detroit Free Press, May 23, 1895. Years Gayle with team from baseball-reference.com.
Unfortunately, we do not know the colors of this team sweater, not yet anyway. But we DO know this — the use of the Tiger nickname occurred at the same time the team wore stripes. These two events in the first months of the 1895 season dovetail nicely. It’s the strongest connection we have so far to explain the origin of the name. Here’s hoping that future historians and bloggers will start spreading the word.
Thank you for your time. — Craig
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated May 3, 1895. This illustration of a Detroit player was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Toledo game played May 2, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. The drawing depicted a player wearing a pillbox cap with horizontal bands and a shirt with the city name spelled out across the chest. Image from the Detroit Free Press, May 3, 1895. Image scan from Peter Reitan.
Photo B
Dated May 3, 1895. This illustration of a S Gillen (95, 96) was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Toledo game played May 2, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. The drawing depicted a player wearing a dark-colored pillbox cap with horizontal bands and a shirt with the city name spelled out across the chest. Image and player ID from the Detroit Free Press, May 3, 1895. Years Gillen with team from baseball-reference.com.
Photo C
Dated May 4, 1895. This illustration of a Detroit player was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Toledo game played May 3, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. Player was depicted wearing pants with quilted padding. Image from the Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1895.
Photo D
Dated May 22, 1895. This illustration of a Detroit player was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Minneapolis game played May 21, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. The drawing may have been made from a photograph. Player was depicted wearing a white shirt and pants of a mid-tine color. The cap, belt and stockings were dark in color. The cap was in the pillbox style and may have horizontal bands around the body of the cap. The player wore a dark sweater under his shirt. The sweater’s wide collar was worn on top of the shirt and was splayed open on each shoulder. Image from the Detroit Free Press, May 22, 1895.
Photo E
Dated May 29, 1895. This illustration of a Detroit player was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Kansas City game played May 28, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. Detail view showed a pillbox-style cap with two wide horizontal bands.Image from the Detroit Free Press, May 29, 1895.
Photo F
Dated May 30, 1895. This illustration of R Gayle (94, 95, 97) was published on this day and possibly represented a scene from the Detroit-Kansas City game played May 29, 1895, full view at left, detail view at right. The drawing may have been made from a photograph. Player was depicted wearing a white shirt and pants of a mid-tone color. The belt and stockings were dark in color. The pillbox-style cap was white with two wide horizontal bands encircling the body. Image and player ID from the Detroit Free Press, May 30, 1895. Years Gayle with team from baseball-reference.com.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
April 1895: “Yesterday morning [April 3] a rosy-cheeked boy dropped into the baseball office, or rather came in on a run. He inquired at several of the desks [about the job of mascot]. Mr. Van Derbeck took the boy’s address and told hime to report for duty on April 12 at the grounds.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 4, 1895.
April 1895: “On Monday, April 10, the club will play with the Athletics [a Detroit amateur team], and on Wednesday the Grand Rapids team [of the Western League] will report here for four games, Detroit then going to Grand Rapids for as many. The team will wear the old uniforms throughout the exhibition series, and on May 1, when the Toledos open the championship series here, will appear in new uniforms. The new suits will be of dark blue with black trimmings and red letters.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 7, 1895. Research from Peter Reitan.
April 1895: “[Detroit players] will leave later in the day [April 10] for Mt. Clemens, [Michigan], and by tomorrow morning nearly every man on the team will be quartered at the Sherman House. The men took their suits with them and Manager Strouthers had plenty of balls. […] President Van Derbeck has disposed of the old faded Los Angeles uniforms. Port Huron bought them outright, and it is hoped the team will have as good luck in them as the original wearers had.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 10, 1895. The team held spring training at Mt. Clemens. Detroit owner George A. Vanderbeck had come from the California League were he operated a team in Los Angeles in the early 1890s. Apparently he brought the uniforms with him to Detroit.
April 1895: “Mr. Van Derbeck had to order three suits by wire to be used in practice games. Two uniforms we stolen during the winter.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 12, 1895. This was the first day the team was assembled in Detroit. According to the Free Press, in the morning the team “put on sweaters” and went for a ten-mile walk, in the afternoon the team put on uniforms and practiced.
April 15, 1895, Detroit v. Athletics of Detroit, at Detroit, exhibition game: “Strouthers’ Tigers Showed Up Very Nicely. […] The Athletics, a local team composed of young men living out Michigan avenue mostly and aspiring to the amateur championship of the city, tackled Capt. Strouthers’ Tigers.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 16, 1895. Researcher Richard Bak wrote in A Place For Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium (1998) that these were “the first mention[s]” of the Tigers nickname in print, and where editor Philip Reid wrote the headline. Strouthers was Con Strouthers, the 1895 Detroit manager. Bak also noted that within this same issue “a column of statistics was labeled, ‘Notes of the Detroit Tigers of 1895.'” There have been many theories regarding the origin of the “Tigers” nickname, see these outlined below.
—-1) Striped Sweater theory: The tiger nickname most likely came from the striped sweaters worn in 1895, see above. Designer-researcher Todd Radom has found that the Detroit players were referred to as the “men of the striped sweaters” in the May 18, 1897 edition of the Detroit Free Press. Radom also found a May 27, 1899 item in the St. Paul Globe that stated “now that the Detroits have abandoned their old striped jackets, the nickname Tigers has no direct application.” Radom concluded that “jackets and sweaters, as opposed to striped stockings, could well be the inspiration behind the Tigers nickname.” The New York Evening Telegram wrote on March 29, 1906 that the Tigers nickname “was due to stripes in the uniform.” Free Press and Globe research from Todd Radom at toddradom.com, retrieved August 3, 2019.
—-2) Detroit Light Guard theory: Researcher Richard Bak has surmised that “Tigers” may have come from the same nickname used by the Detroit Light Guard, a local military formation which fought in the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. In A Place For Summer (1998), Bak wrote that around 1882 “the militia formally adopted a tiger’s head as its crest” and that throughout Detroit during the late 19th century the “renowned Light Guard band frequently performed.” The earliest hard evidence connecting the two entities came from the Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, which wrote on May 16, 1954 that “in 1900 when Ban Johnson organized the American League, the Detroit club owners applied to the [military] regiment to use the Light Guard tiger as their insignia.” Daily Review research from Peter Reitan.
—-3) Connection to Manager theory: In addition to the April 16, 1895 mention of “Strouthers’ Tigers” cited above, researcher Peter Reitan has confirmed that the Detroit Free Press used this specific phrase several other times during the season including April 18, 1895 and April 23, 1895. Reitan speculated that the Tigers nickname could have been “more closely associated with the new manager and not the team.” The nickname may also have derived from the style of play dictated by Strouthers. Designer-researcher Todd Radom has found that The Sporting Life on April 20, 1895, published the following with the dateline of “Detroit, Mich., April 14,” “Con Strouthers […] intends to have a team of Tigers, and the little things that go to make up perfect and aggressive playing will not be overlooked.” In the April 16 issue of the Free Press, the newspaper stated that “a striking feature of this year’s team is the dash which Strouthers’ men put into their game; everyone playing for all there is in it. The pitchers watch the bases, and catcher Lohbeck will not stand any nonsense from those who figure on stealing a bag or two. Lohbeck is like a cat and […] is always ready to throw the ball.”
—-4) Striped Stockings theory: Researcher Richard Bak has written that Detroit manager George Stallings took credit for the nickname. Stallings managed Detroit in 1896 and from 1899-1901. Bak wrote that Stallings “maintained years later that [the Tigers nickname originated] because he had dressed his troops in black-and-brown striped stockings that resembled tiger paws.” However as Bak had noted, Stallings joined the team in 1896, one year after the Detroit Free Press had first attached the nickname to the team. No contemporary reports have been found to confirm the Detroit team wore striped stockings in 1895 or 1896. Researcher Ed Morton found that a decade later the Detroit Free Press on August 6, 1907 wrote that “the Detroit baseball team were nicknamed Tigers when [manager] Stallings bought striped stockings in the days of the old Western League.” The New York Evening Post wrote on August 23, 1910 that the team “was named the Tigers by Philip J. Reid, city editor of a Detroit newspaper. The reasons were—they were the first team to wear striped stockings, had a achieved a reputation as fighters, and the other names by which they were known, Detroits and Wolverines, did not fit well in a newspaper headline.” Other newspapers in the late 1930s, including the New York Post on February 6, 1939, repeated the striped-stocking story but added a date, saying that the nickname was created in 1899. Over the years, the striped-stocking story has been recirculated and reprinted. Historian Marc Okkonen wrote in Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century (1991) that the name “was inspired by yellow and black striped stockings.” A recent written history on Detroit’s Bennett Park by Scott Ferkovich, and published at sabr.org, included the following: “Manager George Stallings outfitted the team in spiffy new black and yellow striped stockings. Fans and sportswriters alike started referring to the team as the Tigers.” Information on Bennett Park retrieved from the SABR site on August 3, 2019.
—-5) Princeton theory: In late 1923 and early 1924 an article circulated across the news wires comparing the Detroit team colors with the colors of Princeton University. The Jamestown (NY) Evening Journal reported on December 27, 1923, that Detroit in the late 1890s “was one of the first to wear striped stockings. Theirs had an orange colored stripe similar to those worn by Princeton football […] and hence the Tigers name applied.” According to princetonia.com: “Princeton is the oldest and reportedly the first [university] to adopt the tiger nickname. Football players of the early 1880s started to wear orange and black stripes on their stockings, jerseys and stocking caps, leading sportswriters to call them ‘tigers.'” Princetonia information retrieved February 9, 2019.
—-6) James Jeffries theory: In an undated blog post, the website Sports History News stated that the Tigers nickname was “likely due to the popularity of boxing heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries, nicknamed ‘Tiger Jim,’ [active 1898 to 1905]. Fans were inspired by his strength and courage on display in each fight he took part in, thus leading them to adopt his moniker for their beloved baseball team.” Um, no.
April 17, 1895, Detroit v. Grand Rapids, at Detroit, exhibition game: “The deacon’s gang [that of Grand Rapids manager Deacon Ellis] may come out of the bushes in May and lambaste the daylights out of Strouthers’ tigers. Such things have happened.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 18, 1896. Another early use of the Tigers nickname.
May 1, 1895, Detroit v. Toledo, at Detroit, home opener: “When the bell sounded three times the Detroits entered the field and were loudly cheered, while the band gave a welcome. The Tigers were out in their new uniforms of dark blue, with black caps and stockings, and red belts and letters on their shirt fronts.” From the Detroit Free Press, May 2, 1895. Research from Peter Reitan. Another use of the Tigers nickname. The Free Press also noted on this day that the Detroit “grounds-keeper had got in his work by putting the words ‘Welcome, Toledo,’ back of the home plate.”
May 3, 1895, Detroit v. Toledo, at Detroit: “The demoralized and sore aggregation [i.e., Detroit] wearing blue uniforms and red letters put up only a common game.” From the Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1895.
May 1895: “Detroit’s home uniform this year will be of Yale blue, with red letters and belt and black cap and stockings. The uniform for the foreign trips will be white with black trimmings.” From The Sporting Life, May 4, 1895. Research from Chuck McGill.
1895, referenced in February 1896: “Mr. Van Derbock [owner George Vanderbeck] will use the old blue uniforms [from 1895] for games abroad [in 1896].” From the Detroit Free Press, February 29, 1896. Research from Todd Radom, www.toddradom.com, retrieved August 3, 2019.
1895, referenced in March 1897: “The gray of last year [1896], the blue of the year before [1895] and some of the cream and black of the first year [1894] will serve for out-of-town games [in 1897], in spite of the fact that the team will have a sort of misfit appearance.” From the Detroit Free Press, March 3, 1897. Research from Ed Morton.
Team genealogy: Detroit 1894-
Detroit joined the Western League (WL) in 1894 when the league reformed. The reorganized WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and reformed again as the American League (AL) for the 1900 season. Detroit played in the WL between 1894 and 1899 and has played in the American League from 1900 to the present day. Information from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: June 23, 2024
Diggers on this uniform: Chuck McGill, Ed Morton, Peter Reitan, Todd Radom,