1898 St. Louis (Browns)
These renderings are based on visual documentation for uniform style only. An educated guess is made on uniform color and on minor details that may be missing or difficult to determine.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on these uniforms:
Photo A
Dated March 29, 1898 to April 14, 1898. This photo was published in a newspaper on April 15, 1898, which was opening day in St. Louis. The image was taken at Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, sometime after the team returned from spring training in West Baden, Indiana, on March 28, 1898. Twenty players were included in the photo, possibly indicating the image was taken before some players were released or sent to the minor leagues. The team posed on the stairway leading to The Pavilion, a portion of the grandstand at Sportsman’s Park. On April 16, 1898, during the second inning of the second game of the season, the ballpark caught fire. A newspaper described that “a cry of fire arose from the center of the southern pavilion, opposite first base.” Another reported that minutes later “in the grandstand and pavilion men rushed for the stairways and soon they were choked with a mass of struggling men” and that as the spectators fled “the grandstand, pavilion and bleachers at Sportsman’s Park were totally destroyed by fire.” Newspapers listed the burned and the injured in their issues the following day, and noted that there was no loss of human life. However “Fly,” the greyhound dog of St. Louis owner Chris von der Ahe, perished in the fire. The quality of the team photo makes it difficult to identify many of the players. However the appearance of St. Louis captain J Clements (98) sitting in the front can confirm the year of the photo as 1898, this was Clements’ only year in St. Louis. The two men seated wearing street clothes were, left, manager T Hurst, and right, team secretary B Muckenfuss. Image scan, publish date and identifications of Clements and Hurst from Ken Samoil. Year Clements with team from baseball-reference.com. Spring training date from The Sporting Life, April 2, 1898. Description of fire from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 17, 1898, and The Sporting Life, April 23, 1898. Info on owner’s dog from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 18, 1898. Image scan and Post-Dispatch research from Gary and Oliver Kodner, cardinalsuniformsandlogos.com. Original image published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 15, 1898. Original image by Sanders.
Dated March 29, 1898 to April 14, 1898. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that the majority of players in the photo wore sweaters over their uniforms, some sweaters were dark in color and others were white. Two players in this detail view wore a white uniform with the city name across the chest. The style of the lettering may not have matched each another. Many players wore a white cap with two horizontal dark bands.
Photo B
Dated September 1898. Year of photo confirmed by the appearance of players Tucker, Hughey, Smith, Sugden and Clements, all of whom only played for St. Louis in 1898. Photo date of September 1898 can be determined by the appearance of player Tucker in combination with the photo setting. Tucker was purchased by St. Louis from Brooklyn on July 19, 1898. The setting of the photograph was the Polo Grounds, New York, as determined by comparing this photo to others of the ballpark from this period. The only games that St. Louis played in New York while Tucker was on the team was a 3-game series played September 17, 19 and 20, 1898. Two of the starting pitchers from this series, Sudhoff on September 17 and Taylor on September 20, were not included in this photo. This may suggest that the photo as taken on September 19, 1898, when pitcher Hughey, standing second from left, was the starter. The team was photographed in the shade of the grandstand and sunlight filled the playing field behind them. A New York newspaper described the weather during this week as “mid-summer conditions” and that in the city “heat and humidity would run riot throughout.” Players wore a light gray uniform in this photo, with dark stockings. The cap was light gray or white and had two horizontal bands in a dark color. The shirt had lace ties and the city name across the chest in blocky dark-colored lettering. The traditional accent color of the team was brown. Lettering on some of the uniforms in this photo was missing, further suggesting the image was taken at the end of the season. Two players sitting in front wore shirts with no lettering or with all of the lettering removed. On the uniform of the player sitting at far left, faint outlines of letters can be seen on his shirt. One player, standing far left, wore a buttoned shirt with no lettering. Two caps did not match the others in the photo, that of the player sitting far left and the player standing second from right.
Top row, from left: T Tucker (StL 98, Bro 98), J Hughey (98), G Smith (98), J Stenzel (StL 98, 99, Bro 98), J Quinn (StL 98, 00, Bro 98) and K Carsey (97, 98). Front: D Harley (97, 98), J Sugden (98), L Cross (98-00), T Dowd (93-98) and J Clements (98). Image and player IDs from the Spalding Base Ball Guide 1899, which was published as a review of the 1898 season. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Tucker purchase date from retrosheet.org. New York weather report from the New York Journal, September 19, 1898. Photo credited to the American Sports Publishing Company, New York, which published the Spalding Base Ball Guide and was owned by Albert Spalding.
Dated September 1898. Detail view of photo B. Detail view showed the poor condition of the uniforms, with letters missing on each shirt.
Photo C
Dated May 1, 1898. Illustration of D Esper (97, 98), full view at left, detail view at right. This drawing was made from a photograph and published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on this date. Player wore a cap similar to that worn in photo B, however the lettering on the shirt did not match the team photo. Note how the period in “St. Louis” was positioned after the letter “T” and not under the letter. The newspaper published several drawings on this day with the overarching headline, “Good Points of the Men Who Expect to Win the Pennant.” The team finished in last in 1898 with a 39-111 record. Years Esper with team from baseball-reference.com. Research from Ed Morton. Original drawing by Charles M. Biggers, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Photos D & E
Dated May 1, 1898. Illustrations of R Hall (98), left, and K Carsey (97, 98), right. These drawings were made from photographs and published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on this date. Players wore a cap similar to that worn in photo B. The newspaper published several drawings on this day with the overarching headline, “Good Points of the Men Who Expect to Win the Pennant.” The team finished in last in 1898 with a 39-111 record. Years players with team from baseball-reference.com. Research from Ed Morton. Original drawings by Charles M. Biggers, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Photo F
Dated 1898. Rendering of L Cross (98-00), full view at left, detail view at right. This rendering was based on a photograph and was published in a St. Louis newspaper in 1898, name and date of newspaper not available. Rendering depicted a uniform similar to the one show in photo B. Years Cross with team from baseball-reference.com. Image from from Gary Kodner.
Photo G
Dated 1890s. Photo of unknown St. Louis players. This photo may have been of players on the St. Louis reserve team from the late 1890s. The uniform the players wore was very similar to that shown in the team photo from 1898, see photo B. The Sporting Life reported on April 23, 1898 that the Quincy, IL, team of the Western Association “will play here [in Quincy] Saturday and Sunday with the St. Louis Browns Reserves.”
Written documentation on these uniforms:
April 1898: “The Browns’ new uniforms were bought from the Simmons Hardware Company, No. 210 North Broadway [in St. Louis].” From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 15, 1898. Research from Ed Morton.
April 1898: “The principal candidates for the position of captain of the Browns are John Clements, the big catcher, and Tommy Dowd, the natty outfielder.” From The Sporting Life, April 16, 1898. An example of one of many references in 1898 using the established team nickname, implying the accent color on the uniform was brown.
April 1898: “[Manager] Tim Hurst’s Firemen is the new name given the St. Louis Browns. It is to be hoped that the Mound City fans will not find it necessary to turn the hose on them.” From The Sporting Life, April 30, 1898. This was an editorial comment on the St. Louis team after they, along with players from Chicago, were put into service helping spectators onto the field during a fire that destroyed the St. Louis grandstand in a game on April 16.
Team genealogy: St. Louis joined 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 the 1892 season. The NL began operation in 1876 and St. Louis has played in the NL every year since 1892. Information from wikipedia.
Rendering posted: October 28, 2020
Diggers on this uniform: Ed Morton, Gary Kodner, Ken Samoil, Oliver Kodner,