1896 Cincinnati (Cincinnatis, Reds, Red Stockings)

Left: 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

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 this uniform:

Photo A

Dated 1896. Year of photo confirmed by appearance of players Gastright and Davis, both of whom only played in Cincinnati in 1896. Players wore a white home uniform in this photo with the city name arched across the chest and red stockings, the traditional color for this team. The white caps had a rounded crown. This was a change from the pillbox-style cap worn by Cincinnati in previous years. Twelve of the eighteen players in this photo wore long-sleeved shirts or shirts with sleeve extensions, indicating the photo may have been taken at the beginning of the season when the weather was cold. Of the remaining six players shown, five wore short sleeves, four of which wore white undershirts and one wore a dark undershirt, presumably red in color. The sleeve style of one player cannot be determined.

Top row, from left: H Peitz (96-04), C Fisher (94, 96), B Rhines (90-92, 95-97), F Vaughn (Cin AA 91, NL 92-99), H Gastright (96 1 gm), W Davis (Cin NL 96 2 gms, Ind WL 96) and R Ehret (96, 97). Middle: B Gray (95, 96), F Foreman (95, 96), F Dwyer (92-99), B Ewing (95-97, mgr 95-99), D Miller (95-99), G Smith (91-96) and B McPhee (AA 82-89, NL 90-99). Front, on ground: D Hoy (94-97), B Holliday (AA 89, NL 90-98) and E Burke (95-97). According to the photo caption, the dog in the front row, far right, was named “Bruce,” and the monkey in the foreground was labeled only as “The Mascot.” For more information on these mascots, see the second detail view below. Player IDs from the printed caption. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Image scan from the New York Public Library, A. G. Spalding Collection. This image was printed in the Spalding Base Ball Guide 1897, issued before the start of the 1897 season. Original photograph by Levi & Gold, Cincinnati.

Dated 1896. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed the city name arched across the chest. Many of the players in this photo wore neckties tucked into their shirts. The tucked-in ties helped to define the shirt opening, which fell between the second “C” and the second “I” in the city name. Detail view also showed white caps with rounded crowns.

Dated 1896. Another detail view of photo A. This detail view showed the team’s two animal mascots. Lower left, a monkey named Mose, and right, a St. Bernard named Bruce.

Mose, the monkey mascot: Buck Ewing biographer Roy Kerr wrote that “superstitions among ballplayers are as old as baseball itself, and Buck Ewing was no exception. […] ‘Mose,’ a ring-tailed monkey, was a simian talisman for Buck Ewing’s Cincinnati Reds during the 1896 season, sharing the honor with a good-luck turtle that had been donated by a local fan.” Researcher Ed Morton has dug through the archives of the Cincinnati Enquirer from 1896 and has discovered more on the story of ‘Mose,” who was also referred to as “Jocko” and the “Mobile Monk.” The first newspaper report came from the Enquirer on March 20 which said that “a big South American monkey will be used this year as a mascot for the Reds.” The monkey was presented on March 19 to player/manager Ewing as gift from the Mobile club of the Southern League, when Cincinnati was returning home from spring training in New Orleans. The paper noted that the Mobile team president was “one of the largest importers of tropical fruits” and that on “every trip, his boats bring back parrots and monkeys.” The Sporting Life mistakenly reported on March 28 that the monkey was a gift from “President Miller, of the Montgomery Club, of the Southern League.” On April 1, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the “Mobile Monk” was due to arrive in the city soon and would be “turned over to the [ballpark] Superintendent [John] Schwab for safe-keeping.” The paper noted that “Schwab has been reading up […] on monkeys for the past two weeks.” Schwab called the monkey “Joco” and joked that he would train the monkey to “umpire as well as Hank O’Day before the season is two months old.” On April 5, the Enquirer reported that the monkey would be “chained to the players’ bench” when on the field and that “the wife of Captain Ewing made the monkey a pair of red stockings” to wear. The next day the Enquirer said that a complete “baseball uniform” was being made for the monkey in “white and red.” However it seemed that Mose was one to monkey around, often at the expense of Superintendent Schwab. On April 8, the Enquirer reported that when “Schwab went to the clubhouse […] he found his lordship, ‘the mascot monkey’ […] running loose” and “examining everything he could get his hands on.” By nightfall, Schwab and his team of assistants were unsuccessful in capturing the monkey as the animal was “perched upon a high window sill” in the clubhouse and had “played havoc” with a number of the team’s sweaters. Schwab was quoted as saying, “I can’t for the life of me see what good that thing (pointing to the monkey) will do the club.” The Enquirer reported on April 10 that “Superintendent Schwab is carrying his right hand done up in an old sock” after trying to contain the monkey who was still on the loose in the clubhouse two days later. The report said that when attempting to capture the monkey in a “coffee sack,” the animal “turned and sank his teeth into the fleshy part of [Schwab’s] hand, inflicting a painful wound.” The paper then reported that “Schwab will have no more to do with the monkey.” However the monkey did get along with the players on the Cincinnati team. The Enquirer reported on April 17 that “the monkey Mose has a suit on something similar to the Reds’ natty uniforms, and all the players petted him before the game.” The newspaper noted that the monkey was especially fond of Cincinnati player Farmer Vaughn. When Vaughn was accidentally hit by a bat from another Cincinnati player, the monkey “made a vicious lunge at the offender, chattering loudly.” Getting along with Superintendent Schwab was also a continuing problem. The Enquirer reported on June 16 that “Mose, the monkey mascot, is no longer a resident of the clubhouse at the Cincinnati Park” and that “Mose and Superintendent Schwab could not live in the same ten-acre lot without having trouble.” The paper wrote that the animal “was taken to Captain Ewing’s East End home [in Cincinnati]. He will stay there until the team returns from its next trip.” The Enquirer reported on August 9 that “Mose the mascot monkey at the Cincinnati Park will spend the winter in the monkey house at the [Cincinnati] Zoological Gardens” and that “Buck [Ewing] will do his best to have the money with the team in 1897.” Mose remained on as the team mascot throughout the remainder of the 1896 season and the monkey’s relationship with John Schwab apparently improved. On August 30 the Enquirer reported that the monkey was present when Henry Holtgrewe, a Cincinnati strongman, demonstrated his abilities at a Reds’ game on August 29. Holtgrewe lifted twenty Cincinnati players in addition to “Superintendent Schwab with ‘Jocko’ the pet monkey and mascot […] in his arms” after all stood on a wooden platform. Holtgrewe positioned himself under the platform and with his back lifted the assembly off its supports, raising an estimated 4,500 lbs. ten inches into the air. The Enquirer published several artist’s drawings of this feat of strength and one sketch clearly showed a man holding a monkey. Cincinnati Enquirer research from Ed Morton. Info on Ewing’s superstitions from Roy Kerr, Buck Ewing, A Baseball Biography (2014).

Bruce, the dog mascot: The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on April 10, 1896, that “Bruce, the big St. Bernard,” was given to Cincinnati player Eddie Burke as a gift from Al Gifford of the Mobile team of the Southern League when the Mobiles were in Cincinnati playing an exhibition game. Burke stood 5-ft 6-in tall and weighed 160 lbs. and the Enquirer noted that “Burke has a big dog that weighs more than himself.” The paper also noted that “Bruce will now help the Mobile Monk do mascot duty for the Reds.” Player Burke and mascot Bruce were photographed sitting side by side in the 1896 team photo, see photo A. Cincinnati Enquirer research from Ed Morton. Burke height and weight from baseball-reference.com.

Photo B

Dated 1896. This is the same image as shown in photo A but with higher resolution in the image. This version included the photographers name on the border.

Dated 1896. Detail view of photo B. This detail view showed that the manager, seated in upper middle, wore a cap with colored vertical ribbing. Detail view also showed that the player seated in middle front held a chain in his left hand. This chain was to keep Mose, the monkey mascot (not shown in this view), in check.

Dated 1896. Another detail view of photo B. This detail view showed that the player sitting second from right wore light-colored stockings with wide hortozontal bands. Detail view also showed that the player sitting at right wore a shirt with lettering that was lighter in tone when compared to the other uniforms.

Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1896: “The Cincinnati home uniforms, as usual, will be white. The traveling uniforms will be gray, of the same shade as that in use last season [1895]. The caps will be similar to those worn by the Pittsburg[h]s last season, of white cloth for the home games and gray for traveling.” From the Buffalo Enquirer, March 6, 1896. Research from Don Stokes.

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.

May 21, 1896, Cincinnati v. New York at Cincinnati: “Up to the sixth inning but four Red Stockings reached the bases.” From the New York Herald, May 22, 1896. This was one of several reports from 1896 that implied the team wore their traditional red stockings.

June 1896: “The Cincinnati Reds are reported to have dropped dead, figuratively speaking, when the Baltimores appeared for the first game there last week. […] The very word of Baltimore struck terror to the hearts of the wearers of the bright-hued hose.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 7, 1896.

September 1896: “What a contrast in uniforms. Those worn by the Cincinnatis have been in the tub many a time this summer.” From the Detroit Free Press, September 24, 1896. This entry was possibly a comment on the Detroit uniforms, which the newspaper commented on as being dirty at the end of the season.

Team genealogy: Cincinnati 1881-
Cincinnati was formed in 1881 to join the American Association (AA) for its inaugural season in 1882. The AA was a major league operating between 1882 and 1891. Cincinnati played in the AA throughout the 1880s and then joined the National League (NL) for the 1890 season. The NL began operation in 1876. Cincinnati has played every year in the NL from 1890 to present time. Information from wikipedia.