1875 New Haven (Elm Citys)

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:

Photo A

Attributed 1875. Ward B Snyder catalog page, detail of page at right. Shows sock pattern that may have been used by New Haven club.

Written documentation on this uniform:
Early 1875: “The uniform will consist of white flannel cap, shirt and knee breeches, with blue stockings and trimmings, and the name of the club on the breast of the shirt in English letters.” From Steve Scarpa, 19th Century Baseball, New Haven Style (spelvin56.wordpress.com), referencing New Haven Daily Palladium. No specific documentation given.

March 1875: “The uniforms of the Hartford, New Haven and Athletic clubs are very nearly alike.” From New Haven Daily Palladium, March 15, 1875. Researched by Steve Scarpa, 19th Century Baseball, New Haven Style, spelvin56.wordpress.com.

April 1875: “New Haven took the field in their white flannel uniform with ‘New Haven’ stitched in blue on chest and white and blue checked socks.” From David Arcidiacono, Major League Baseball In Gilded Age Connecticut (2009), referencing New Haven Evening Register, Apr 12, 1875 and Apr 26, 1875.

April 19, 1875, New Haven v. Boston, at Boston, Union Grounds: “The regular professional championship season for 1875 was inaugurated on the 19th of April, […] the contestants being the champion Red Stockings of Boston and the new professional nine of the Elm City Club of New Haven.” From the New York Clipper, May 1, 1875. Report showed use of the team name combined with the city name. The box score published in this issue used “Elm City.”

Team genealogy: New Haven was formed to join the National Association (NA) in 1875. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. The team was also called Elm City, after New Haven’s early public tree planting program. The team was not included in the National League (NL) at its formation in 1876. Subsequently, New Haven played as an independent and disbanded at the end of 1876. –Information from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875 (2012), and from wikipedia.