Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday.
It being Tuesday, that means it’s time for another edition of Leo’s World, and this week Mr. Strawn continues his look at turn of the century baseball, including a section on Uni Watch’s Patron Saint of the Stirrup, Mr. Napoleon Lajoie! So far, Mr. Strawn graced us with the “The Old Ball Game (Volume 1)” and “The Old Ball Game (Volume 2)”, and we continue with Volume 3 this morning.
Enjoy!
The Old Ball Game (Volume 3)
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
Ah, the early days of MLB. It was a great time for uniform aficionados like us to reflect upon as the sport was still trying to figure out what a baseball uniform should look like.
I’ll start with a curiosity. This photo is purported to be from 1901 and I don’t doubt that. At least four of the players are in the uniforms of the AL Baltimore Orioles from that season and a few others appear to be. It’s a shame I’ve never run across a better photo of the ’01 Orioles because I love those road unis.
What is curious about it is that the gentleman on the left end of the middle row looks like he could be wearing the NL Brooklyn club’s monogram from the early 1900s, possibly on a jacket. It could also be that it is the monogram of the 1899 Boston Beaneaters of the NL (seen in the photo below). It’s hard to tell due to the low quality of the photo above. The second man to the right of him (his left) is wearing a jersey that says “NEW YORK”. That is almost certainly the 1901 Giants. So why are there several AL Baltimore Orioles pictured with a NY Giants player and one who may have played for Brooklyn in 1901, or maybe Boston in the NL in 1899? Any ideas?
Speaking of the pre-Yankees era, I’m going to post another photo of these beauties worn in 1904 by New York while they were still known as the Highlanders. One of my all time favorite uniforms, plus I love those socks! (To clarify for those who live about 150 miles east of me, it is a fact that this is one of my favorites. That’s not debatable like a random opinion of what constitutes “best”.)
The Tigers 1905-06 road uniforms looked great with those white caps and collars.
I love this pic. While most photos from that era showed players in static poses for “action” shots, this 1901 pic of Matty McIntyre of the Athletics is a real treat.
Matty would have played with Napoleon Lajoie in 1901. This pic is supposed to be from 1902. It would have been during the early part of the season because of some weird ruling that somehow only applied within the state of Pennsylvania after Lajoie had jumped from one Philadelphia club to the other. Because of that quirk in the injunction against the Athletics, Connie Mack traded Nap to Cleveland so he could remain an American League draw.
He played by the lake through 1914 while also officially managing the team starting in 1905. Nap Lajoie would become the first of four people that I’m aware of who had a Cleveland team from a major professional league named after him. (How many can you name? Answer below.) These photos of Lajoie are from circa 1903-04 and 1908.
The uniforms of the American League’s Boston entry didn’t have much of a slimming effect on the legendary Cy Young. I love the lace up jersey, though.
Cy would return to Cleveland (he played for the NL Spiders at the beginning of his career) and team up with Lajoie on the Naps from 1909 through part of the 1911 season when he was traded to the other Boston club, the Rustlers (n.k.a., Atlanta Braves), to finish out the season and his career.
That NL Boston club was also known as the Doves for a time and sported these caps in 1909.
Before I wind this edition down, let me say two things. First, I’m sure we would all say that Doves cap is a normal style of ballcap, similar to the shape of today’s headwear. Second, readers of Leo’s World know that I love the old pillbox caps.
In addition to pillbox caps, however, there is another early style of cap that intrigues me. It’s similar to the caps we all grew up with, but slightly different in a couple of key areas.
The illustration below from a 19th century catalog shows a few pillbox caps, a cap that resembles modern ballcaps (listed as “NO. 11”), a similar cap with a short bill (“NO. 19”), one that I’m not sure what it is but to me looks somewhat like a bucket hat worn in cricket (listed as “NO. 3”), one that looks like a newsboy cap (“NO. 13”) and two others that are of the style I mentioned that I am intrigued by (“NO. 7” and the one at the bottom that says “Cheap Muslin”). Obviously, these were sold as early as the 1800s but were worn in MLB into at least the 1920s. The illustration on the 1919 World Series cover on the right shows Pat Moran wearing one of these. The backs are higher than the front and the pill is not centered from front to back.
Here are some Chisox photos from 1903 (top) and 1917 (bottom). I’m not sure exactly when they started wearing this style or when they stopped, but apparently Comiskey liked this style on his ballplayers.
This is a mishmash of teams. George Sisler with the St. Louis Browns on left (not sure of the year), top row is Nap Lajoie of Cleveland from 1904 and next to him is an unidentified Cubs player in 1908, bottom left is from the 1908 Senators and bottom right is the White Sox again, this photo from 1907. You can see the pill forward of the top/center of the cap as well as the odd placement of pinstripes the shape of the cap created in some of these pics below and in the Sox photos above.
The striping looks really odd in this 1906 Senators team photo.
I would love to know what these caps are called. Surely they had a specific name. If anyone knows, please share.
One more thing: The three Cleveland teams from major professional leagues I asked about earlier (aside from the Cleveland Naps, named for Napoleon Lajoie) are the Cleveland Rosenblums (a.k.a., Rosies, pro basketball team founded in 1919 by Max Rosenblum, members of the American Basketball League from 1925 through 1931 when the club folded), Cleveland Tate Stars (pro baseball team founded in 1919 by George Tate, members of the Negro National League from 1922 to 1923 when the club folded), and, of course, the Browns.
Until then…
Cheers!
Readers? What say you?
Total joy to see these pictures and I am looking at my 8 panel UW logo hat made by Ebbets Field. Such a beautiful hat. Of the ones that you show this time my favorite is the Milwaukee pillbox. I have a vintage Pirates pillbox that hangs in my living room: too small to wear.
It’s a real shame the direction that Ebbets Field has gone this past year–a sharp turn into enshittification: no longer 100% wool, not all made in the US, and a lot less of the original vintage reproductions that was once their bread and butter. And the worst part? Everything is a lot more expensive.
Totally agree with you. Jerry sold it to Fanatics and look what happened. Such a pity.
It’s hearbreaking
I was wondering what happened! I went looking for a jersey I’d had my eye on and it was gone. That really sucks.
GTGFTU – October 5, 1969 Franklin Field, Philadelphia. Dallas Cowboys 38, Philadelphia Eagles 7. Rookie from Yale (Boola Boola!) Calvin Hill on the carry vs. the Eagles in their short lived (1969-73) White helmets.
The Eagles only wore the White Helmets at home that year and jerseys didn’t feature stripes until later in the season, then from 1970-73 the stripes were gone. Nice NFL 50 patch.
Did the patches give it away Mike LOL! That is my father’s old Philadelphia Bell teammate Tim Rossovich in the back. I almost didn’t recognize him without his Vampire costume on. I still have one of those 50 year NFL patches my father gave me. I have moved at least nine times since 1969, I have no idea how I still managed to hang on to it.
Nice you still have the NFL 50 Patch Jimmy! The patch totally gave it away, I would have looked in 1970-73 when the Eagles wore the White Helmets full time and Calvin Hill had some years under his belt
My father got cut by the Eagles in 1969 and again in 1971, I have no idea why he took those patches, he never really brought that stuff home unless it was a t shirt to lift in.
For my fellow soccer fans – Pat Moran (lede photo) looks like Ancelotti there!
I see what you mean, but Carlo would never wear a cardigan or a cap. I cannot imagine the man in a track suit either. Even as a player on the pitch he must have worn a suit and tie.
Yeah of course! I’m just referring to his face.
Doesn’t help that everyone back then looked 30 years older than they were.
You are so right!
GTGFTS: Based on the Avs-Wild score being depicted, and the likelihood of it being a playoff game, the only such game that was scoreless in the third fell on April 21, 2014, which the Wild would win in St. Paul in OT. The scoreboard itself being at Coors Field, where the Rockies beat the Giants 8-2 that evening. However, I’m confused by the seemingly random numbers placed up for the out-of-town games – the Rangers and Athletics did play each other that night, as did the Astros and Mariners, but those numbers don’t seem to correspond with anything from those games themselves. The numbers on the left also don’t seem to correspond to any other AL games, which would already have been in progress (as all other AL teams playing that day were playing in the Eastern time zone, and being Patriots’ Day Boston’s game was long over by this time) and so should be showing hits and errors from whatever games they’re supposed to be.
The numbers are the uniform number of the team’s starting or current pitcher.
Ah, I guess that makes some sense.
GTGFTS
21 April 2014
Rockies knock Ryan Vogelsong out after scoring 5 runs in 1.1 innings and beat the Giants 8-2.
The more important game on the board is the Avs and Wild Game 3, which ends in a Mikael Granlund OT winner, giving the Wild their first series victory. Minnesota completes the comeback from 0-2, winning Game 7 down the street.
The front page refers to these pictures as being “from the first decade of the millennium,” which is not at all accurate.
As to the players from the Orioles, Giants, etc. being photographed together, I can only speculate that it was some kind of all-star, or, more likely, a benefit or testimonial game. If a popular player died or fell on hard times, sometimes they’d hold a game to raise money for him or his family, and players from all over baseball might participate. See, for example, the description of one held for Addie Joss of Cleveland a couple of months after his sudden death at age 30 in 1911.
link
I have some pics from the players who took part in the Addie Joss benefit coming up next week and I spend some time talking about his accomplishments and Cleveland’s love for him.
That game is recognized as the first known benefit/all star game, so I would need to see some kind of proof that the 1901 players are in that photo together for something similar to believe that was the case. That would be quite a historical discovery if that could be proven.
That 1906 Senators photo makes them look like they are wearing ballcap washers, the plastic frame you place a ball cap in and then add it to the laundry.
link
Never seen that before! Looks great, but I am worried about the state of the bill/visor when it comes out of the washinh machine…
washing…