1896 Chicago (Chicagos, Colts)

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 April 1896 to June 1896. Year of photo confirmed by players Reilly, McBride and Flynn, all of whom only played in Chicago in 1896. Date range of photo determined by appearance of player Truby, who was sold to Pittsburgh on July 4, 1896. This photo may have been taken at spring training when the team practiced in Charlotte, NC. The regular season for Chicago began on April 16, 1896. Players wore an all-white uniform in this photo, including white belts and stockings. The cap was white and made in the pillbox style. The shirt was blank without any lettering. A newspaper editorialized in May 1896 that the “Chicago players do not wear the name of the city across their shirt fronts. White stockings, white caps and white belts are supposed to be sufficient to identify them.”

Top row, from left: J Reilly (Chi 96, SF/Stkn CL 96), D Friend (95-98), C Griffith (Chi NL 93-00, AL 01, 02), D Parker (93, 95, 96), J Ryan (NL 85,89, 91-00, PL 90), A McBride (Chi 96, GR WL 96) and G Flynn (Chi 96, Ind WL 96). Middle: H Truby (Chi 95, 96, Pit 96), B Briggs (96-98, 04, 05), G Decker (92-97), B Lange (93-99), C Anson (76-97), T Donahue (95-00), B Everitt (95-00), A Terry (94-97) and M MacFarland (Chi 95, 96, GR WL 96). Front, on ground: B Dahlen (91-98) and M Kittridge (90-97). Player IDs from photo. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial Committee. Truby transaction info from retrosheet.org.

Dated April 1896 to June 1896. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed the all-white uniform. Because of the poor quality of the image, it cannot be determined if the shirt had lace ties or buttons.

Written documentation on this uniform:
April 11, 1896, Chicago v. Kansas City, at Kansas City, Exposition Park, exhibition game: “Anson’s Colts were given a hard race for six innings, and the ‘fans’ were hopeful for a time that the Blues would take a fall out of the National leaguers.” From the Kansas City Star, April 12, 1896. Use of the Colts nickname.

April 1896: “The nicknames of the National league clubs are as follows: Boston, Beaneaters; Cleveland, Spiders; Pittsburg[h], Pirates; Philadelphia, Quakers; Baltimore, Orioles or Oysters; Brooklyn, Bridegrooms; Cincinnati, Reds; Louisville, Colonels; St. Louis, Browns; New York, Giants; Washington, Senators; Chicago, Colts.” From the Windsor (ON) Evening Record, April 14, 1896.

April 16, 1896, Chicago v. Louisville at Louisville, home opener: “Hardly had the noise settled [for Louisville] when Anson and his band of gray-uniformed colts marched on the diamond, ten abreast, with the veteran at their head. The visitors were accorded almost as great applause as the home team.” From the Louisville Courier-Journal, April 17, 1896. Research from Ed Morton.

May 1896: “The Chicago players do not wear the name of the city across their shirt fronts. White stockings, white caps and white belts are supposed to be sufficient to identify them.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 11, 1896.

May 29, 1896, Chicago v. Brooklyn, at Eastern Park, Brooklyn: “The Colts won the game in the eighth, when they scored two runs on […] Anson’s two bagger.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 30, 1896. One of many newspaper reports from 1896 that used the team’s nickname of “Colts.” Chicago had returned to wearing their traditional white stockings in 1894, however the “White Stockings” nickname had been abandoned by 1896.

Team genealogy: Chicago 1874-
Chicago reformed after the Great Fire of October 1871 and rejoined the National Association (NA) in 1874 and 1875 after a two-year absence. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. Chicago joined the National League (NL) at its formation in 1876 and the team has played in the NL every year since 1876. Information from Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875, from baseball-reference.com, and from wikipedia.