Uni-Firsts for Shirt Lettering & Graphics

Threads Of Our Game not only documents the early game, but also determines when new uniform styles and trends came into being. The following is a list of “Uni-Firsts” for baseball shirt lettering and graphics as we see it, after the year 1865:

—First with team name on shirt after 1865: 1866 Cream City, Milwaukee, 1866 Union, Morrisania NY

—First with graphic symbol on shirt: 1866 Live Oak, Cincinnati

—First with serif initial on shirt: 1867 Pastime, Baltimore

—First with city name on shirt: 1871 Boston

—First described to have a ‘Roman’ font on shirt: 1874 Hartford

—First with square-serif font on shirt: 1874 Yale University

—First with lettering on shirt cuffs: 1875 Western, Keokuk IA

—First with Tuscan-style font (Red Sox font) on shirt: 1875 Rose Hill, Fordham University

—First professional team photographed with their city name placed diagonally across the shirt: 1877 Cricket, Binghamton NY

—First professional team photographed wearing a letter on the left breast of the shirt: 1882 Eclipse, Louisville

—First team photographed wearing a letter on the right breast of the shirt: 1883 Ironside, Lancaster PA

—First team to wear a team nickname (as part of the full team name) on the shirt: 1883 Chicago Unions

—First professional team reported to wear an abbreviation of the city name on their shirt: 1883 Philadelphia

—First professional team reported to wear a symbol of the team nickname on the shirt: 1885 St. Louis (NL)

—First professional team reported to wear only a team nickname on the shirt: 1888 Kansas City (AA)

—First professional team reported to depict a baseball graphic on the shirt: 1897 Boston

—Player numbers on uniforms: There were two instances from the 19th century where the idea of adding player numbers to uniforms was discussed or even possibly implemented for a brief period. The first was 1883 Cincinnati, where 20th-century newspaper reports, the earliest being from 1923, claimed the Reds first wore numbers as an experiment in 1883 or a related year. No contemporary accounts have surfaced to support this claim. The second was 1895 Chicago, where the team owner considered adding player numbers during the off-season but apparently abandoned the idea before uniforms were ordered. See “written documentation” on each team page for further details.

—Learn about the history of shirt lettering at the Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum website: Dressed To The Nines – Lettering