1860 Excelsior, Baltimore (Excelsiors)

This rendering is based on 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 rendering.

Rendering accuracy:Year: documented    Team: documented

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A

Dated June 6, 1860. Photo of Excelsior, Baltimore, and Potomac, Washington DC, at Washington, White lot. This is one image of a stereoscopic CDV. The players of the two clubs stood in alternating positions in this image and the spectators stood at far right. The identity of the scene is determined by a handwritten inscription on the back of the image that reads, “Taken after match game between the Potomac Base Ball Club of Washington and Excelsior Club of Balt in which the latter were successful.” The inscription was signed “Wm F Clayton.” Baltimore baseball historian James H. Bready has noted that this match “was the first intercity baseball game in U.S. history” outside of those played in the New York city area, and that Excelsior won 40 to 24. Reporting on the game, the Baltimore Daily Exchange on June 8, 1860, said that “at half-past twelve o’clock the colors of the respective Clubs were run up. The Excelsior players were dressed in blue flannel pants, white flannel shirt and gray caps; and the Potomac players in full gray flannel suits.” Regarding the White lot, the Daily Exchange on June 8 described it as such: “the play-ground is elegantly situated in the rear of the president’s house, there being plenty of room and a clear field. The sod, however, is soft, and consequently the ball did not bounce well, which made it necessary to do the fielding on the fly.” The poor quality of the image makes it hard to determine if the structure at the far right was the President’s mansion. Image scan from “George M,” who emailed Threads in 2025 stating that “a few years back, I traded a very rare 1860s Philadelphia cricket CDV for the stereo view that depicts the game that is referenced from June 6, 1860. The stereo view is in rough shape but you can still make out some great details.”

The Excelsior club had connections to prominent New York teams. Historian Bready noted that club’s name “was selected in honor of the Excelsior baseball club of Brooklyn, N.Y., and the membership, consisting almost entirely of young merchants.” One member, a grocer named George F. Beam, had witnessed baseball in Brooklyn, at the invitation another grocer, Brooklyn Excelsior player Joseph Leggett. According the Bready, “Beam was converted” and brought the game to Baltimore. Researcher McKenna added that “on Saturday April 28, James W. Davis, the president of the oldest baseball club in the country, the Knickerbockers of New York, mixed with the Excelsiors in a game up Madison Avenue [in Baltimore], pitching and catching ‘with consummate skill.’” Info about team name and Brooklyn connection from James H. Bready, Baseball in Baltimore, the First 100 Years (1998), and citing the Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser, July 12, 1859, which announced the club’s formation. Info about the Davis visit from From Brian McKenna, Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858-1872, and citing the Baltimore Daily Exchange, April 30, 1860.

Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed some of the Excelsior players wearing dark-colored pants, a white long-sleeved shirt and holding gray caps.

Written documentation on this uniform:
June 6, 1860, Excelsior, Baltimore, v. Potomac, Washington DC, at Washington, White lot: “The play-ground is elegantly situated in the rear of the president’s house, there being plenty of room and a clear field. The sod, however, is soft, and consequently the ball did not bounce well, which made it necessary to do the feeling on the fly. At half-past twelve o’clock the colors of the respective Clubs were run up. The Excelsior players were dressed in blue flannel pants, white flannel shirt and gray caps; and the Potomac players in full gray flannel suits.” From the Baltimore Daily Exchange, June 8, 1860. Research from Brian McKenna, who added that “the occasion sparked the first box score to be printed in a Baltimore newspaper.”

July 1860: “The Excelsior Base Ball Club, as is usual among Clubs, have had the prize ball which their skill won from the Potomac Club, of Washington City, in June last, gilded, and it is now on exhibition at the jewelry store of Messrs. Wm. Brown & Co., corner of Baltimore and Charles streets. Inscribed on the ball are the words, “Potomac vs. Excelsior, Washington, June 1860.’” From the Baltimore Daily Exchange, July 11, 1860.

Team genealogy:
 Excelsior, Baltimore, 1859-1861
Excelsior was formed in Baltimore in July 1859. They merged with the Waverly club of Baltimore in 1861 to form the Pastime club of Baltimore. Information from From Brian McKenna, Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858-1872.