The Syracuse Stars dressed to impress.
The Stars, a minor league team in the New York State League, had equipment packed for opening day in Rochester, N.Y., on May 3, 1885, but their uniforms weren’t ready. Team management kept asking a local seamstress about the omitted outfits. Their needling questions went unanswered.
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“The Stars played while attired in nine different suits,” the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball reported.
Syracuse lost the game 8-3. Maybe their ties were too tight.
After stringing them along for days, the seamstress eventually produced the uniforms.
The now appropriately clothed Stars had fans in stitches on Oct. 16 of that year when they played a baseball game on skates at Cornell University.
“It was fun — real, genuine fun — to see the players, some of whom seemed never to have been on skates before, tumbling about the floor in such an innocent and childlike manner,” The Cornell Daily Sun described. “In one instance the ball was knocked through the window, the batter making a home run.”
The frozen fundraiser raised $15 for Cornell’s athletic council.
Tim Hagerty is the broadcaster for the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas, and is on Twitter at @MinorsTeamNames. He is also the author of “Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball’s Most Off-the-Wall Team Names.”
