1895 Omaha (Omahas)

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

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A
Dated April 1895 to June 1895. Year determined by players Balsz and Slagle, who only played for Omaha in 1895. Date range of April 1895 to June 1895 determined by the fact that the team relocated to Denver on July 5. The team wore a white or light-colored uniform in this picture with dark stockings. The pants were padded. One player in the back row wore the team sweater over his uniform. Another player in the back row wore a uniform shirt with lace ties and no lettering. A newspaper reported in 1895 that the team planned to wear white uniforms for the season, with red caps, red trimmings and red stockings.

Top row, from left: L Balsz (Oma/Den 95), P Lohman (Oma/Den 95, StJ WA 95), E Hutchinson (Oma 94, Oma/Den 95), J Rusie (Oma/Den 95), G Carisch (Oma/Den 95) and G Darby? (Oma 92, Oma/Den 95). Middle row of five: R Egan (Oma/Den 95, Oma 00), C Shaffer? (Oma/Dev 95), unidentified, D Rowe (mgr Oma/Den95) and J Walsh (Oma 88?, Oma/Den 95). Front row of two: G Ulrich (Oma 94, Oma/Den 95) and J Slagle (Oma/Den 95). Player IDs and years with team from baseball-reference.com. Identities of Lohman, Rowe and Walsh from Nigel Ayres. Identities of Rusie, Carisch, Egan and Shaffer, the latter speculative, from Carson Lorey. Regarding player Joe Walsh, Ayres noted that “there is no indication on the Baseball-Reference site of him having any association with the team. However, Walsh is listed in the box score for at least the games reported in the 21st and 22nd April for the team in the Omaha Daily Bee.” The identity of the man sitting in the middle of the center row may be manager T McVittis (Oma/Den 95). Lorey notes that this man may instead be player Eddie Miles “who should be pictured somewhere in here.” Image scan from Mark Fimoff, SABR 19th-century Pictorial History Committee. Denver relocation date from Richard Worth, Baseball Team Names: A Worldwide Dictionary, 1869-2011 (2013). Original photo by Herman Heyn or George Heyn, Omaha.

Dated April 1895 to June 1895. Detail view of photo A. Detail view showed the city name arched across a button placket. Note that a shirt button fell on top of the first letter “A” in Omaha.

Written documentation on this uniform:
March 1895: “The Western Association has selected the uniforms for the different clubs and no two will be alike. The Omaha dress will be white, with red caps and trimmings, stockings and letters.” From The Sporting Life, March 9, 1895. Research from Chuck McGill. A later report said the team wore white caps, not red.

April 1895: “The new [Omaha] uniforms arrived Friday [April 5, 1895]. They come from Spalding’s, in Chicago, and are […] white caps, shirts and trousers, with red belts, stockings and trimmings.” From the Omaha Daily Bee, April 7, 1895. Research from Don Stokes.

Team genealogy: Omaha 1894-1895
Omaha rejoined the Western Association (WA) in 1894. The WA reorganized in 1893 and operated between 1893 and 1897. Omaha played in the WA in 1894 and 1895. The team moved to Denver during the 1895 season. Info from Baseball America, Inc., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1997).