1874 Athletic, Philadelphia (Athletics, Blue Stockings)
These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style and partial written documentation for uniform color. Minor details may be undocumented or difficult to determine and an educated guess is made to complete the renderings.
Rendering accuracy:
Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated 1874. Year of photo confirmed by player Gedney, who only played for Athletic in 1874. Players wore a white uniform with light-colored stockings. Unlike the individual player portraits shown below, the uniform did not include the team name across the shirts.
Top row, from left: A Gedney (74), M McGeary (72-74), T Murnane (73, 74), C Anson (72-75) and J Battin (73, 74). Middle: W Fisler (66-76), C Sensenderfer (66-74), D McBride (63-75), J Clapp (73-75) and J McMullin (73, 74). Front: E Sutton (73-76) and A Reach (65-75). Player IDs from photo. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com.
Dated 1874. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that two players, McBride (#7) and Clapp (#10), wore tight-fitting collarless shirts. McBride was the team’s only pitcher and Clapp was the team’s catcher. This may imply that, as the battery, these men wore these unique shirts to differentiate from the other players in the field.
Dated 1874. Another detail view of photo A (from a different version). Detail view showed the team’s unique belt buckles. Detail view from Getty Images.
Photo B
Dated before July 1874. Portrait of W Fisler (66-76), full view at left, detail view at right. Based on the photo back drop, this portrait, along with those of other team members, were made at the same photo session. It is possible these images were made to promote the baseball exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874. It is also possible the ‘Athletic’ name was added to the player’s shirts for the creation of engravings to promote the tour. A newspaper in July 1874 reported that the Athletics were given new uniforms for this tour, and that the shirt included “a shield over the breast, and the word ‘Athletic’ embroidered thereon.” See written descriptions below. Years Fisler with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Original photo by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photos C & D
Dated before July 1874. Portraits of D McBride (63-75), left, and T Murnane (73, 74), right. Based on the photo back drop, this portrait, along with those of other team members, were made at the same photo session. It is possible these images were made to promote the baseball exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874. It is also possible the ‘Athletic’ name was added to the player’s shirts for the creation of engravings to promote the tour. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Image scans from the Trading Card Database, tcdb.com. Original photos by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photos E & F
Dated before July 1874. Portraits of A Reach (65-75), left, and C Sensenderfer (66-74), right. Based on the photo back drop, this portrait, along with those of other team members, were made at the same photo session. It is possible these images were made to promote the baseball exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874. It is also possible the ‘Athletic’ name was added to the player’s shirts for the creation of engravings to promote the tour. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Image scans from the Trading Card Database, tcdb.com. Original photos by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photo G
Dated July 14, 1874. This collage of player portraits was published in a newspaper on this date. Full view at left, detail view of player Anson at right. Year of portraits confirmed by player Gedney, who only played for Athletic in 1874. Illustrations were made from photographs, compare to photos above. Illustrations clearly showed the ‘Athletic’ nameplate added to the shirt, possibly for the creation of illustrations (like these) to promote the upcoming exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874.
Player portraits, clockwise from top: W Fisler (66-76), A Reach (65-75), J McMullin (73, 74), M McGeary (72-74), A Gedney (74), J Clapp (73-75), C Anson (72-75), C Sensenderfer (66-74), E Sutton (73-76) and J Battin (73, 74). Center: D McBride (63-75). Image from The Daily Graphic, New York, July 14, 1874. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from RR Auction, rrauction.com. Illustrations made from an original photos by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Dated July 14, 1874. Detail view of D McBride (63-75) taken from the player montage published on this date. Illustration was made from a photograph, see photos above. Illustration clearly showed the ‘Athletic’ nameplate added to the shirt, possibly for the creation of illustrations (like this one) to promote the upcoming exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Image from The Daily Graphic, New York, July 14, 1874. Illustration made from an original photo by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photo H
Dated July 25, 1874. This collage of player portraits was published in a newspaper on this date. Full view at left, detail view of player Fisler at right. Year of portraits confirmed by player Gedney, who only played for Athletic in 1874. Illustrations were made from photographs, compare to photos above. Detail view at right clearly showed the ‘Athletic’ nameplate added to the shirt, possibly for the creation of illustrations (like these) to promote the upcoming exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874.
Player portraits, top row from left: D McBride (63-75), J Clapp (73-75) and M McGeary (72-74). Middle: J McMullin (73, 74), W Fisler (66-76) and J Battin (73, 74). Bottom: E Sutton (73-76), A Gedney (74) and C Anson (72-75). Image from Harper’s Weekly, July 25, 1874. Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from baseball-reference.com. Illustrations made from an original photo by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photo I
Dated July 25, 1874. This illustration of the team was published in a newspaper on this day. Illustrations like these were created to promote the exhibition tour of England, July-September 1874. Similar to other photos shown above, players were depicted wearing uniforms with the team name added to the shirts. Based on the quality of this illustration, it is likely the artist drew the players “by eye,” and not by utilizing a “camera lucida,” the common practice of the day. A camera lucida is a device by which an artist can visually project the subject of a photograph onto a second piece of paper and then trace (redraw) the forms of the projected subject. Furthermore, it is also possible the drawing was entirely the creation of the artist and not based on a photograph at all. To further support this assumption, note player Anson, who was depicted in the top row standing second from right. According to baseball-reference.com, Anson stood 6-feet tall while the other men in the top row, Murnane, Gedney, Reach and McMullin, were 5ft-9in in height, or less. If this drawing was based on an actual photograph, Anson would be notably taller than his fellow players. To further this point, note Anson’s height in the 1874 team photo shown above, see photo A.
However despite these inconsistencies, it can be confirmed that the depiction of the players’ faces and the style of their neckties and shirt collars in photo I were indeed based on the portraits taken in 1874 by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia, see photos above. Oddly, some of these faces (and neckties) were transposed by the artist, based on the hairstyle of the players in the original portraits. The faces of players Murnane, Gedney, Reach, Clapp, Battin, McBride and Fisler had been flopped. To make things more confusing, the newspaper that published this illustration misidentified several of the players, most notably player Anson, who clearly was in the back row, standing second from right. The newspaper listed Anson as sitting in the front row, third from left. The caption also misspelled the name of the photo studio, Suddards & Fennemore, stating that the team was “photographed by Stoddards & Fennimore.”
Top row, from left: T Murnane (73, 74), A Gedney (74), A Reach (listed as manager, 65-75), C Anson (72-75) and J McMullin (73, 74). Front: J Clapp (73-75), C Sensenderfer (66-74), J Battin (73, 74), D McBride (63-75), W Fisler (66-76), E Sutton (73-76) and M McGeary (72-74). Player IDs based on other photos from this year, and also from the photo caption. Image from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1874. Image scan from Getty Images/Transcendental Graphics. Illustration possibly based on an original photo by Suddards & Fennemore, Philadelphia.
Photo J
Dated August 8, 1874. Athletic, Philadelphia, and Boston teams at Richmond, London, England. Date from photo frame (not shown). Though the quality of the image makes it hard to determine, it appeared the Athletic players did not have their team name displayed on their shits. John Bauer offered this summary of the game in Richmond: “After a delay because of a thunderstorm, the Americans met the Richmond Cricket Club in a 22-versus-13 cricket match that concluded early in deference to baseball. The 2,000 spectators [then] watched Dick McBride shut out the Red Stockings through seven innings. Boston managed to score late, but the Athletics claimed an 11–3 win.” From John Bauer, Summer 1874: New game in the Old Country, at sabr.org.
Photo K
Dated October 13, 1914. This photo of the 1874 team was published in a newspaper on this day. The newspaper incorrectly dated the photo as 1871. Note that this image was slightly different than photo A. The pose of player Reach, sitting on ground at right, was slightly different and indicated there were alternate prints made at one time. Image from the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, October 13, 1914. Image scan from Ed Morton.
Photos L, M & N
Dated April 18, 1874. Three detail views of a newspaper illustration published on this day. The captions under the drawings read, “the opening game of the season” and “sketches of the game between the Philadelphia and Athletic Clubs, at Philadelphia, Tuesday last [April 14, 1874].” In the illustration, the two teams could best be identified by their caps: the Athletic players were depicted wearing a baseball-style cap with a visor, while the Philadelphia players wore a hat with a full brim. The Athletic uniform was depicted as being lighter in tone than that of Philadelphia. A newspaper report from this game stated that the Athletics wore “white flannel suits and blue stockings,” however the drawings above may suggest the Athletics wore light gray pants and dark stockings. The detail view shown in the middle indicated that the Athletic uniform had no lettering on the shirt. Image from the New York Daily Graphic, April 18, 1874. Image scan from SABR, The Rucker Archive. Research help from Matt Albertson.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1874: “Each professional nine should have a color and uniform of its own. New York has the green, Boston the red, Philadelphia Athletics the blue, Chicago the white, Hartford will have gray or brown, and Baltimore should have the yellow.” From the New York Clipper, March 28, 1874.
April 1874: “[In the National Association] it will […] be the Reds of Boston, the Whites of Chicago, the Pearls of Philadelphia, the Athletic Blues, the Baltimore Canaries, the Mutual Greens, and the Hartford Grays for 1874.” From the New York Clipper, April 11, 1874.
April 14, 1874, Athletic, Philadelphia, v. Philadelphia, at the field of the Athletic Club, opening day: “The uniforms of the two clubs helped to impart a picturesque appearance on the field. Especially was this the case with the neat and tasteful dress of the Athletics, viz., white flannel suits and blue stockings.” From the New York Clipper, April 25, 1874.
July 1874: “The new Athletic uniforms for this trip [to England in late July] have been provided and in all are very handsome. The new uniform will consist of white flannel pantaloons and shirt, with shield over the breast, and the word ‘Athletic’ embroidered thereon. The remainder of the uniform will consist of white flannel caps lined with white silk, blue stockings and white canvas shoes.” From the Chicago Inter Ocean, July 13, 1874. Research from Don Stokes. Researcher John Bauer has written that “the players [of the Athletic and Boston teams] arrived in Liverpool on July 27, 1874” and that the two teams “played their first game on July 30 at Edgehill, the grounds of the Liverpool Cricket Club.” Liverppol dates from John Bauer, SABR Games Project, Summer 1874: New Games in the Old Country, retrieved February 11, 2022.
July 1874: “Yesterday morning the steamship Ohio, of the American line, left this port for Liverpool. Among her passengers were the Athletic and Boston Base Ball Clubs, the object of the trip being to return the visit of the English cricketers. […] The Athletic Club have been provided with a handsome new uniform of white flannel, pantaloons and shirt, with shield over breast, and the word ‘Athletic’ embroidered thereon, blue stockings, and white canvas shoes. New white flannel caps have also been provided. These latter are very handsome and lined with white silk. They were a present to the club from Messrs. Sullender & Paschall, of this city.” From the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 17, 1874. Research from Ed Morton.
July 1874, headline for a listing of Athletic team members: “The Athletic Blue Stockings.” From the New York Clipper, July 25, 1874.
August 3, 1874, Athletic v. Boston, exhibition game in England: “Yesterday, at Lord’s, the Britishers had a capital opportunity of seeing the two best nines of America play and exhibition match at their national game of base-ball. […] The Boston team wore white flannels, red stockings, band, and cap, while the Athletics wore white flannels and blue stockings and caps, and each man had his club marked in big letters on his shirt over his chest.” From the London Standard, August 4, 1874. Research from Ed Morton.
Team genealogy: Athletic, Philadelphia 1859-1876
Athletic was formed in 1859 in Philadelphia, PA, and began playing the New York-style game about 1860. Athletic belonged to the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), baseball’s first organization operating 1857-1870. Athletic joined the National Association (NA), the first baseball league, in 1871 at its inception and competed in every year of league’s existence, 1871-1875. Athletic then joined the National League (NL) in 1876 for its inaugural season. The club was removed from the NL before the 1877 season and subsequently disbanded. The Athletic name was used by subsequent teams in Philadelphia, including the American Association team (1882-1890) and the American League team (1901-1954). Information from William J Ryczek, Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Founders (2013).
Rendering posted: August 17, 2019
Diggers on this uniform: Don Stokes, Ed Morton, Matt Albertson,