1885 Nashville (Nashvilles, Americans)
Left: This rendering is based on written documentation 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
Right: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Minor 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 these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated mid-June 1885. Year of photo determined by the appearance of players Werrick, Kellogg, Deistel, Cullen, Crowell and Voss, all of whom only played for Nashville in 1885. The date of mid-June can be determined by several factors. The appearance of manager Mayberry in the photo suggests the image was made after Mayberry took over as manager on June 7. The appearance of player Hellman wearing street clothes suggests the photo was made while the catcher/outfielder was recovering from an injury. A newspaper on June 3 stated that Hellman “had not sufficiently recovered the use of his arm” and another report from June 18 stated that Hellman was “still unable to play.” It was not until June 24 when a newspaper announced that Hellman was “fully recovered.” The appearance of Kellogg in the photo tells us the photo was made before his release from the team a month later on July 27. The players wore a uniform in this photo that was of a mid-tone in color, with dark caps, belts and stockings. The shirts were short-sleeved, with lace ties down the front and a shirt pocket on the left breast. The mid-tone color was not gray, but a color called “old gold.” After starting the season wearing gray uniforms with red caps and stockings, a newspaper reported on May 26 that the team had switched to “new and handsome old gold uniforms.” Newspapers confirmed that the team wore the old-gold uniforms in July, and therefore it is likely this was the uniform the team wore when they were photographed in mid-June. By the end of the 1885 season, newspapers said that Nashville wore a combination of old gold and gray uniforms. The majority of players in the team photo wore shirt laces that were either white or old gold in color. However, at least three players wore dark-colored laces, probably red in color. The caps and stockings may also have been red. At least four players had an unidentified object, possibly a fielder’s glove, held inside their shirt pocket.
Top row, from left: J Werrick (85), L Marr (85, 86, 95), N Kellogg (85), (T Hellman 85, 86), (J Mayberry, mgr 85), L Sowders (85, 86), J Deistel (85) and O Beard (85, 86). Front: J Cullen (85), J Hillery (85, 86), B Crowell (85) and A Voss (85). Player IDs from the Nashville Banner, July 8, 1934. Banner research from Carson Lorey. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Date of Mayberry joining team from wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans, citing the Nashville Daily American, June 7, 1885. Date of Kellogg leaving team from wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans, citing the Nashville Daily American, July 28, 1885. Image scan from wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans, Skip Nipper, Carson Lorey and Chuck McGill.
Dated mid-June 1885. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that the lace ties on the shirts were either old gold or white in color. Detail view also showed that the shirt had a shirt pocket on the left breast.
Dated mid-June 1885. Another detail view of photo A. This detail view showed three pill-box style caps in the foreground. The caps had a line of trim on the front of the vizor and possibly subtle horizontal bands around the body of the cap.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
March 1885: “All the members of the American Baseball Club have arrived [in Nashville] except three. […] The suit adopted and now being made for the club is gray, trimmed in red with red caps and stockings.” From the Nashville Banner, March 6, 1885. Research from Chuck McGill. Documented research also provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans. An example of the official team name in use, which was decided upon in October 1884. The Nashville Tennessean reported on October 9, 1884, that “a stock company has been formed of reliable and business men of this city, who have decided to get a team for Nashville of professional base-ball players who can meet the best clubs of the country and cope with them in a game of which the audiences would not leave the grounds disappointed or disgusted.[…] The stockholders decided to call the club ‘The American’ Base ball nine.”
March 1885: “There is scarcely a man in the city of Nashville whose name is now upon as many lips as that of Will C. Bryan, the manager of the American base-ball club.” From the Nashville Tennessean, March 15, 1885. Documented research provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans. Another use of the official team name.
March 1885: “The new uniforms of the Americans arrived yesterday, and the players will show up their best advantage today [in an exhibition game with Indianapolis, March 30, 1885]. The uniforms on the field will look very much like those worn by the Indianapolis – gray suits with red trimmings. The uniforms of the locals will have the name across the breast plate in black letters.” From the Nashville Daily American, March 30, 1885. Research from Ed Morton. Documented research also provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans.
April 6, 1885, Nashville v. Chattanooga, at Chattanooga, exhibition game: “The Americans, of Nashville, is undoubtedly a strong team. […] They are uniformed in light gray with red stockings and caps.” From the Chattanooga Daily Times, April 7, 1885.
April 1885: “Today the Americans open the Montgomery base-ball park with the club of that city.” From the Nashville Tennessean, April 13, 1885. Another example of the team name in plural form.
May 1885: “The management, at the solicitation of all the clubs in the [Southern] league, who bear the names of their respective towns, and with the indorsement [sp] of the [Nashville Daily] American, filed a petition for a charter changing the name of the club to the Nashville Base Ball Association.” From the Nashville Daily American, May 21, 1885. Documented research provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans. By June, newspapers commonly called the team “the Nashvilles,” and the team was listed as “Nashville” in box scores and league standings.
May 1885: “The Nashvilles will also appear [on May 26 v. Atlanta in Atlanta] in their new and handsome old gold uniforms.” From the Nashville Tennessean, May 26, 1885. Documented research provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans.
June 1885: “The Nashville audience then learned that Nashville had gone to the field. ‘Voss’ printed upon old gold, the club colors, was hung in the diagram at [the] pitcher’s box.” From the Nashville Tennessean, June 4, 1885. This entry described the team color of old gold, which was reflected in the new uniforms first worn in late May. This was a portion of a report describing a simulated game at the Masonic Theatre in Nashville. The simulation was based on telegraph reports of an actual game taking place “several hundred miles away” in Memphis where Nashville played on June 3. The simulated game was communicated at the theatre via “a large black board, having upon it a diagram of the ball field.” The following game of June 4th was also simulated and the Tennessean, on June 5, reported that “several hundred people were assembled at the Masonic Theatre where the game was reported play by play, and they cheered themselves hoarse as the runs rolled rapidly up on the blackboard in favor of the Nashvilles.”
July 1885: “The Nashvilles will play [on June 9 v. Columbus, GA, in Nashville] in their handsome old gold uniforms, which have been fixed up.” From the Nashville Tennessean, July 9, 1885.
July 1885: “The locals will again wear their old gold uniforms and will likely win again [on June 10 v. Columbus, GA, in Nashville].” From the Nashville Tennessean, July 10, 1885.
August 1885, Nashville v. Birmingham, at Nashville, Sulphur Spring Park: “New uniforms needed — The ‘all broke up’ appearance of the Nashvilles’ uniforms is noticeable by the large number of spectators of the games. [Pitcher Norm] Baker is all right himself, […] but the make-up of his uniform is very tiresome, a regular combination suit of two or three old uniforms. […] Billy Taylor is also quite needy in this regard. When he pitched his first game for the Nashvilles, some three of four weeks ago, he appeared upon the diamond with gray pants and a noticeably clean shirt. In all of the games in which he has since appeared, whether the club wore old gold or gray uniforms, he has worn the same old dirty pants and the white shirt that is now no longer white. It is padded, smeared and coated with the dust of four weeks and as many diamonds. That same shirt, which has never touched with water, has been an eye-sore to people in Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Atlanta. The uniform of the other players, though presentable, are very shabby and ought to be exchanged for new ones. Give the team a new outfit by all means.” From the Nashville Tennessean, August 23, 1885. Documented research provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans.
August 1885: “There are now only seven and a half suits of the old gold but the players claim that every suit is full of hits. […] Rival clubs with poor batters are stealing the ‘old yallers,’ as they are called, piece by piece, to get these base hit out of them. The Columbus team got away with Billy Taylor’s yellow pants, and after losing three games here [in Nashville], went to Memphis and haven’t lost a game of the present series. Inquiry has been made, but there is no more cloth of the same kind in the country.” From the Nashville Tennessean, August 24, 1885. Documented research provided at wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans.
Team genealogy: Nashville 1884-1887
The Nashville team was founded as the American Baseball Club in October 1884 and joined the Southern League (SL) for its inaugural season in 1885. Nashville played in the SL in 1885 and 1886, and disbanded after the 1886 season. The Southern League reorganized in 1887 and a new Nashville team was also organized and accepted. Nashville played in the SL until they disbanded in August of 1887. Info from wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Americans and wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Blues.
Rendering posted: October 15, 2022
Diggers on this uniform: Carson Lorey, Chuck McGill, Ed Morton, Skip Nipper,