1890 Pittsburgh (Pittsburghs, Pittsburgs)

Left: This rendering is based on partial visual documentation for uniform style and partial 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

Right: 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

Visual documentation on these uniforms:

Photo A

Dated 1890. Collage of player portraits. Full view at left, three detail views at right. Similarity in uniform and studio setting suggests these portraits were all made at the same time. Photo date of portraits can be determined by appearance of players Hurley, Robinson, Visner, Corcoran, Quinn, and Tener, all of whom only played for Pittsburgh in 1890. Collage shows that players wore a white or light-colored shirt in these portraits, with arched lettering across the chest. Players tucked their neckties into a shirt opening that was off-centered on the shirt, indicating the shirt had buttons and not lace ties. Newspapers reported in early 1890 that the Pittsburgh PL team planned to wear maroon as an accent color for the upcoming season. Detail views show that the thickness of the shirt lettering varied slightly from uniform to uniform, and that the letter “G” had a unique letter form. Detail views also shows that the city name was spelled as “Pittsburgh” with an “H” and not as “Pittsburg” which became the official spelling in 1891. The city reverted back to the original spelling of Pittsburgh in 1911. Pittsburgh etymology from wikipedia.com.

Outer circle of portraits, clockwise from top: H Staley (PL 90, NL 88, 89), J Beckley (PL 90, NL 88, 89, 91-96), J Fields (PL 90, NL 87-89, 91), J Hurley (90), B Kuehne (PL 90, AA 85, 86, NL 87-89), E Morris (PL 90, AA 85, 86, NL 87-89), Y Robinson (90), A Maul (PL 90, NL 88, 89, 91), J Visner (90), T Corcoran (90) and T Quinn (90). Inner circle, clockwise from top: N Hanlon (PL 90, NL 89, 91), F Carroll (PL 90, AA 85, 86, NL 87-89, 91), P Galvin (PL 90, AA 85, 86, NL 87-89, 91, 92) and J Tener (PL 90). Player IDs and image from David Nemec, The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Major League Baseball (2006). Supporting research from Ken Samoil and Nigel Ayres. Years with team from baseball-reference.com.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
January 1890: “All the secretaries of the clubs in the Players’ National League [i.e., Players’ League] have sent their club uniform colors to Secretary Brunell. All the clubs, except Philadelphia, have selected white home and colored traveling uniforms, so that the audience can readily distinguish the teams in the field. The teams will be dressed as follows: […] Pittsburg[h]- Home: white suits, maroon trimmings and stockings. Traveling: gray suits, maroon stockings and trimmings, white cloth jacket.” From the Chicago Daily Tribune, January 29, 1890. Research from Don Stokes. A similar report was published in the Buffalo Courier, January 30, 1890, and The Sporting Life, February 5, 1890.

1890, referenced in 1891: “Manager Hanlon wants the [1891 Pittsburgh] club’s gray uniform trimmed something like […] the Pittsburg[h] Players’ [League team] had last year—a college gray, with black trimmings. Red trimmings were selected before Ned made known his desire.” From The Sporting Life, March 21, 1891. This report suggests the accent color for the 1890 Pittsburgh PL team was black at some point during the 1890 season.

Team genealogy: Pittsburgh 1890-1890
Pittsburgh was formed to join the Players’ League (PL) at the league’s inception in 1890. The PL was a major league that played for one season before folding. The team merged with the Pittsburgh National League (NL) team for the 1891 NL season. Info from wikipedia.