1899 Milwaukee (Milwaukees, Brewers)

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 these uniforms:

Photo A

Dated 1899, possibly July 1, 1899, to July 4, 1899. Year of photo determined by the appearance of players Gray, Hart, Friend and Chech, all of whom only played for Milwaukee in 1899. A date range of July 1 to July 4, 1899, can be suggested by Friend in combination with by the likelihood that this photo was taken when the team played at Kansas City on these dates. Friend joined the Milwaukee team on May 28, 1899, and was sold about six weeks later in early July 1899 to Minneapolis. He was not with Milwaukee during the team’s other two visits to Kansas City, in mid-May 1899 and mid-August 1899. Kansas City superintendent Charles Meyer organized photos of visiting Western League teams to be taken on the field in Kansas City during the 1898, 1899 and 1900 seasons. The photo above included the mark of “Meyer” and “K.C. Mo.” in the bottom corner of the image. Most of these photos had a white sheet draped behind the players, similar to the above photo. The photographer of these images was not credited. All of the men in the photo above participated in the games played in Kansas City between July 1 and July 4, with the exception of Friend. The photo also showed that two players, pitcher Rettger standing far left and pitcher Reidy standing far right, were dressed in street clothes, suggesting they were not available to play on the day this photo was taken. Box scores showed that Reidy pitched one game of a doubleheader on July 2nd and that Rettger pitched in the game on July 4th. There was no game played on July 3rd. Based on this, it could be suggested this photo was taken on July 1, 1899. Players wore a white or light gray uniform in this photo. Though the image may have been overexposed, it is possible the players wore white on this day, a uniform more typically worn during Milwaukee home games. The uniform in the photo also had dark lettering on the shirt, a dark belt and dark stockings. The cap was white and in the pillbox style. Newspapers from early in the 1899 season reported that the Milwaukee team had a white uniform for home games, a gray uniform for road games, and that the accent color for both was dark blue.

Top row, from left: G Rettger (94-00), B Gray (99), F Weaver (95-99), B Hart (Mil 99, Min 99) and B Reidy (97-01). Middle: G Shoch (88, 89, 91, 98, 99), D Friend (Mil 99, Min WL 99), R Stafford (95-99), G Nichol (95-99) and C Chech (99). Front: I Waldron (97-01), G Speer (96-99, 02-04) and F Barnes (96-99). Player IDs from photo frame. Years with team from baseball-reference.com. Date of Friend joining the team from The Sporting Life, June 10, 1899. Info of Friend being sold to Minneapolis from The Sporting Life, July 15, 1899. Info on Charles Meyer from the Kansas City Times, October 13, 1898, with research from Ed Morton. Image scan from the Detroit Public Library, Harwell Collection.

Dated 1899, possibly July 1 to July 4, 1899. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed that a button partially overlapped the letter “A” in the city name, and that the shirt had a pocket on the lower left.

Written documentation on these uniforms:
April 1899: “The traveling uniforms of the Milwaukee club arrived this morning [April 7, 1899] and were taken to the ball park. They are of gray, the same as last season [1898]. They were made by the Spalding people. The home uniforms are being made by Quinn and will be of white material, the same as usual.” From the Buffalo Commercial, April 7, 1899. Research from Ed Morton.

April 1899: “New [Milwaukee] uniforms of white for home games and gray ones for the road, with dark blue trimmings at all times, is what the Brewers will wear this year.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1899. Research from Ed Morton, and also from Don Stokes.

April 1899: “The Milwaukee players will not be allowed to wear mixed uniforms this summer. A good many clever ideas have had their origin in Milwaukee since Connie Mack went there.” From the Buffalo Express, April 13, 1899. Research from Ed Morton.

April 1899: “The Milwaukee ‘Giants’ will wear white uniforms, with trimmings of blue while at home, and the usual gray will be worn on the road.” From the Kansas City Times, April 17, 1899. Research from Ed Morton. Note the use of the “Giants” nickname.

May 1899: “A series of four games between Mr. Manning’s youngsters and the Foam Blowers from Milwaukee was completed at Exposition Park this afternoon [in Kansas City].” From The Sporting Life, May 27, 1899. This entry offered up a humorous alternative for the Brewers nickname.

1899: “The club’s uniforms for 1899 were to be white flannel with dark blue trim at home, and gray flannel with the same trim while on the road. Hats, stockings and belts were also dark blue.” From Dennis Pajot, citing the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Evening Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Daily News, from the period of early February 1899 to the end of April 1899.

Team genealogy: Milwaukee 1894-1901
Milwaukee joined the Western League (WL) in 1894 when the league reformed. The reorganized WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and reformed again as the American League (AL) in 1900. Milwaukee played in the WL between 1894 and 1899 and in the AL in 1900 and in 1901, the year the league declared major league status. The team was replaced by St. Louis for the 1902 season. Information from wikipedia.com.