1877 Cricket, Binghamton NY (Crickets)

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 1877. Date confirmed by fact that all players in photo only played for this team in 1877. Players wore a white uniform in this photo with a shield-shaped bib trimmed in dark material. The team name was displayed diagonally across the bib, a unique feature not seen in any other example from this period. The long-sleeved shirts also had dark trim along the collar and at the wrist. The pants also had dark trim along the pant seam, noticeable on the player sitting at far left. The cap was not shown in this cropped version of the photo and may have been on display in the foreground. A newspaper in 1877 reported that the team planned to wear white uniforms with red belt and stockings, and that the cap was white with red trimmings.

Top row, from left: J Roche (77), B Clack (77) and E Kennedy (77). Middle: J Richmond (77), A Allison (Crkt LgA 77, StP LgA 77), J McGinnis (77) and P Smith (77). Front row: H Richardson (77), B Hotchkiss (77) and N Alcott (77). Photo and player IDs from the Endicott (NY) Record, April 27, 1918. These identifications listed Roche as Roach, and Clack as Clark. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Endicott Record research from Ed Morton.

Dated 1877. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed the diagonal lettering across the shield and shirt collars with rounded points.

Written documentation on this uniform:
April 1877: “The Crickets, of Binghamton, will appear this season in an entirely new uniform of white twilled flannel, trimmed with red, with red belt and stockings, and white cap trimmed with red. The breast will wear a shield, probably of red, with the word ‘Cricket’ in white German text. The shoes will be the Boston box-toe—a new patent.” From the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, April 15, 1877. Research from Don Stokes. Note that the shield shown in photo A was white in color, not red, and that the team name was displayed in sans-serif Roman-style lettering, and not in a German-style lettering as described by the newspaper.

Team genealogy: Coming soon.