Figure 1.--This tintype portrait shows an American boy wearing a sailorsuit with a baseball bat. This is the earlies baseball image we have archived on HBC. Based on the sailor suit, we would estimate that the portrait was taken in the 1880s. Click on the image for a discussion of the portrait.

Uniforms appeared with the founding of professional sports teams. We are not sure, but believe this began in the 1860s. We do not notice boys wearing uniforms until much latter. Baseball became a high school school sport and you begin to see uniforned school teams in the late 19th century. Most images of boys playing baseball through the 1930s show them playing in their regular clothes and not uniforms. Thus we see boys in a wide range of outfits playing baseball or in portraits with baseball equipment. Some of the images we have found are unidentified and thus can not be dated with precession. This began to change after World War II (1941-45) and the move to the suburbs. There were more areas to play baseball and Little League became a major activity for boys. We see many images of boys in baseball uniforms.

The 1880s

This tintype portrait here shows an American boy wearing a sailorsuit with a baseball bat. His outfit looks a little like a baseball uniform, but is definitely a sailor suit. We have not noted boys his age playing baseball in organized leagues with uniforms during the 1880s.This is the earlies baseball image we have archived on HBC. Based on the sailor suit, we would estimate that the portrait was taken in the 1880s, but the late 1870s is possible. We don't think this boy was a baseball event. Rather the bat may have been a plot used by the photographer at a festival or carnival of some kind. We don;t know what to make of the bat. It looks to have some kind of metal centerpiece.

The 1900s

We notice the Sprage company offering a baseball shirt and pants set in 1906 that could be worn by to school or as a team uniform. It came with a matching cap and a snazy red belt.

The 1920s

Highschool boys were playing baseball in inter-scholastic sports with school uniforms. We do not yet note boys commonly playing orgazized baseball in leagues with uniforms. Almost all images show boys playing sandlot baseball. Furing the 1920s we see them mostly wearing knickers to play baseball, often with flat caps and knickers with long dark stockings.

The 1930s

Baseball continued to be the most popular sport in America during the 1930s. Most images of boys playing baseball during the 1930s show them wearing knickers. A good example is a Shinola advertisement in Boys' Life (1930). We note more images of boys wearing long pants when playing baseball by the end of the decade.

Created: 8:35 PM 11/10/2004
Last updated: 4:26 AM 2/6/2005