1890 St. Louis (Browns, Brown Stockings)

These renderings are based on partial written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the renderings.

Rendering accuracy:Year: documented    Team: documented

Visual documentation on these uniforms:

Photo A

Dated 1889 to 1891. Photograph of J Stivetts (89-91), full view at left, detail view at right. Date range for photo based on player’s time with the St. Louis team. It is undetermined the specific year in which this image was made. Photo showed a white shirt with dark lace ties, probably brown in color, and decorative stitching around the placket. The city name was arched across the front of the shirt in square, boxy letter forms similar to those found on other St. Louis uniforms from this period. The cap was white with two horizontal bands. The pants had two front-facing belt loops. Image and player ID from Gregory H. Wolf, SABR BioProject: Jack Stivetts, retrieved February 13, 2023. Years Stivetts with team from baseball-reference.com.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
January 1890: “The stockholders of the St. Louis Athletic Association, otherwise the Brown Stocking Base Ball Club, held their annual meeting at the Sportsman’s Park office last Monday.” From The Sporting Life, January 22, 1890. This report suggests the team continued their tradition of wearing brown stockings.

February 1890: “It was decided that each team in the [American] Association should wear a white uniform (shirt and pants) upon the home grounds. The color of the cap, belt and stockings was left to the pleasure of the individual managers.” From The Sporting Life, February 19, 1890.

April 1890: “President Von der Ahe and Capt. McCarthy yesterday selected from a lot of samples a solid rich dark-brown piece of cloth and decided to have uniforms made of it for the St. Louis Browns. The caps will be of the same goods, and the belt will also be dark brown in color. […] Capt. McCarthy will today take the measures of all the men and they will be forwarded to Chicago to Spalding Bros. who will make the uniforms.” From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 24, 1890. Research from Ed Morton.

May 1890: “The St. Louis traveling uniform will be solid brown. Spalding is making the suits.” From The Sporting Life, May 3, 1890. Research from Clifford Blau. A similar report was printed again in The Sporting Life, May 17, 1890.

June 1890: “Little Jack Munyan’s work has made him one of the most popular players that ever donned a Brown Stocking uniform.” From The Sporting Life, June 14, 1890. This report suggests the team wore brown stockings during the season.

Team genealogy: St. Louis 1882-
St. Louis was formed to join the American Association (AA) in 1882. The AA was a major league operating between 1882 and 1891 and St. Louis played in the AA in every year of the league’s existence. The team moved to the National League (NL) for 1892 season. The NL began operation in 1876 and St. Louis has played in the NL every year since 1892. Information from wikipedia.