A Flash In The Plaid: Meet The Ottawa Senators, The City’s First (And Short-Lived) Pro Baseball Team

The Ottawa Senators sport their unique tartan uniforms, custom-made by local tailor J.R. McNeil in 1898. While these outfits were a source of pride in Ottawa, they received mixed reactions elsewhere. Though the photo is dated 1897, it was actually captured in 1898 during the team’s first and only season in the city. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, BL-3270.71)

 

The summer of 1898 was a turbulent time for professional baseball. Ballpark attendance figures plummeted across the United States as the Spanish-American War raged, and the Eastern League was not immune to this downturn. Rochester, back in the league after losing its franchise to Montreal a year earlier, was once again in bad shape. Something had to be done.

So on July 10, 1898, the Eastern League’s power brokers gathered in Syracuse, New York, to discuss the future of the organization. The league faced potential dissolution as its president, Pat Powers, considered drastic measures. Rather than fold the league, the owners agreed to slash player salaries by 20 percent. They also decided that Rochester needed a new home. Two cities— Ottawa and Worcester, Massachusetts—quickly emerged as potential landing spots, with Newark, New Jersey, and Hartford, Connecticut also in the mix.1

The owners preferred Ottawa over Worcester. It certainly helped Ottawa’s case that in the weeks leading up to the Syracuse meeting, a local newspaper had been waging a public campaign to bring an Eastern League franchise to the city.

“Baseball has never been really given a first-class trial in this city,” the Ottawa Citizen wrote in its June 23, 1898 edition.

“True, we can boast of several good amateur teams; in fact, they are second to none in the district, but baseball is a game requiring great training and the devoted attention of the men, and, therefore it has to be professional to be played scientifically. It is a game of science and a fame requiring study. To play it a man can do nothing else.”2

In a series of editorials in the days that followed, the Citizen championed the idea of a professional baseball team for Ottawa. The paper argued that competing against teams from larger markets like Toronto, Montreal, and Buffalo would elevate the city’s profile. The argument struck a chord with Ottawa mayor Samuel Bingham.

“I’m not very conversant with baseball as a game,” Bingham said, “but I think the proposal to bring Ottawa into the Eastern League circuit a very good one. You may rest assured that I will do everything in my power to promote the enterprise, if it is found, after a careful canvass, to be at all feasible. I never yet went back on anything that was calculated to benefit Ottawa locally or make her more widely known in the outside world.”3

The public pressure paid off. Two days after Eastern League owners met in Syracuse, a group of Ottawa investors—led by local brickmaker Alex Graham4—bought the struggling Rochester franchise for $2,500.5 The Citizen proudly patted itself on the back, claiming it had “single-handed, took up the cause of the game in Ottawa and was instrumental in bringing the matter before the attention of the league.”6

Finding a place to play was the next hurdle facing Ottawa’s new owners. Lansdowne Park was their first choice, but the baseball schedule conflicted with that of the city’s lacrosse club, the Capitals, who held a lease to the grounds.7 Even if the ballclub could somehow coordinate its schedule with the lacrosse team, Sunday games posed a problem. Strict observance laws forced Sunday games to be played across the river in Hull.8 Ottawa’s owners decided the team would play its first two games at Lansdowne Park, on July 15 and 16, before relocating to the nearby Metropolitan Grounds on Jane Street (later Pretoria Avenue) between O’Connor and Metcalfe streets, with the exception of Sunday games played in Hull.

Meanwhile, the former Rochester players had to scramble to make it to Ottawa for their first home game on July 15. Hastily throwing together whatever belongings they could carry, they found themselves on a steamship with their Syracuse rivals, departing Ogdensburg, New York, for Prescott, Ontario. What should have been a short journey turned into an odyssey. The connecting train to Ottawa, plagued by frequent stops, stretched what should have been a relatively brisk 45-mile trip into an ordeal lasting hours. When the train finally pulled into the Ottawa station, the players were met by a large crowd of excited fans.9

On the afternoon of Ottawa’s first home game, 2,500 people converged on Lansdowne Park from every corner of the city and its neighboring towns, paying a quarter (or 50 cents for a seat in the grandstand) for the chance to be a part of history. Samuel Bingham, the mayor, threw out the game’s first pitch. After a chaotic few days, the Ottawa team took the field in their Rochester uniforms. The jerseys, victims of travel’s wear and tear (or perhaps a botched attempt to erase their past city), sported a bewildering array of misspellings across the players’ chests. The Ottawa Citizen poked fun at this alphabet soup of mismatched letters, saying “It might be gathered from the smatterings of literature on the bosoms of the Ottawa team that they belonged to the ‘Roche,’ ‘R Este,’ ‘OT,’ ‘Chester’ and various other clubs.” Taking the field for their home opener with a quirky assortment of lettering on their jerseys, the Ottawa team appeared understandably nervous facing their hometown crowd for the first time. Just days removed from a nasty illness that confined him to bed for over a week, pitcher George Harper lacked control on the mound. Ottawa dropped their debut game to Syracuse by a score of 8–1.10 The next day offered a brighter spot. Though still a loss, Ottawa pushed Syracuse to a much closer 10-7 defeat.11

While the Ottawa team continued to jell on the field, their mismatched uniforms remained a source of amusement. “The Ottawa boys must have played hot ball somewhere to melt all those letters off their shirts,” the Citizen cracked after the club’s opening weekend.12 Thankfully, a fresh set of uniforms was already in production, and they would be unlike anything Eastern League fans had ever seen. Sparks Street tailor J.R. McNeil presented the team with a bold design: tartan uniforms.

“The Ottawa baseball team will appear in the new suits presented to them by Mr. J.R. McNeil for the first time on Monday morning,” the Ottawa Citizen wrote on July 29.

“The club’s colors are red, white and tartan. The shirts and knickerbockers are made out of the McNeil tartan, the former having red collars and cuffs, with smoked pearl buttons. The players will wear a white peaked cap with red band, and red stockings. The costume is said to be unique, striking and attractive. Mr. McNeil is to be congratulated upon his generous gift.”13

The unique uniforms got mixed reviews outside Ottawa. “It was the general impression in the Eastern League circuit that the late Rochester uniform was the most hideous the ingenuity of man could devise,” the Montreal Gazette wrote. “The new Ottawa outfit, however, knocks it into a cocked hat.”14 Added another Montreal newspaper, the Daily Star: “Long dissertations were published on the appearance of the Ottawas, when they were known as the Rochesters, but if anybody wants to see a sight, it is worthwhile going to the ball grounds to see the awful uniforms the men are now rigged out with. It is a wonder that they don’t refuse to wear them.”15 The Sporting Life called them “the most ridiculous that were ever seen on ball players,”16 while the Buffalo Commercial published this commentary from the Providence Journal: “Nothing can be funnier than the coaching of Wheels Clymer, unless it is the ludicrous appearance of the Scotch plaid of the Ottawa team in a baseball uniform.”17 Ouch.

The team is often referred to as the Wanderers. But there is ample evidence they were actually called the Senators. The city’s daily newspapers published at least five articles over the summer of 1898 in which the team is called the Senators. A Toronto sportswriter first suggested the moniker days after the team relocated from Rochester.

“In a signed article in the Toronto News J. Hay has the following: ‘When a new team comes into the baseball world there is always a big hustle among the various sporting writers on the circuit to give the new team an appropriate name. For a short time the club is provided with names to cremate, but one appellation finally meets with the approbation of all concerned, and the team is put to the necessity of carrying this title while they stay with the league. What name can be inflicted on the Ottawa club? The Washingtons in the National are known as the Senators, and wouldn’t it be appropriate to call the Capital City’s team by the same name?’”20

It seems Ottawa sportswriters liked the suggestion. On August 13, the Ottawa Citizen refers to the team as the Senators when describing their game against Montreal (“Two more [runs] were made in the fifth by the Senators”).21

The Citizen calls the team the Senators three times in an August 17 article: “The Senators played good ball this afternoon and won a splendid ten innings game from the Habitants [Montreal] … An error by Butler, who did such good work yesterday, gave the Senators the game. … Ottawa is playing gilt-edged ball these days, and the home public here have the assurance of some excellent sport when the Senators meet the Toronto club on Thursday.”22

The Ottawa Journal referred to the team by this name days later when talking about their victory over Toronto: “But joking aside—aren’t the Senators playing nice ball—real pennant winning ball. The score yesterday by the way was Ottawa 3: Toronto 2. Looks close, but the game wasn’t quite as narrow as that. Toronto never looked as good a team as Ottawa in yesterday’s contest. They aren’t either and Willie Clymer has just about the warmest outfit in the league.”23

Two days later, the Citizen once again used the Senators moniker. “The man that presented that Black Watch tartan uniform to the Senators ought to have added a bagpipes. Perhaps Harper would march up and down the coach line and supply the music to cheer them on to victory.”24

The fact that two of the city’s daily newspapers use the name multiple times strongly suggests that the team was called the Senators, at least unofficially. But maybe not by everyone. It seems that Toronto sportswriters had not quite settled on a nickname. Two days after the Toronto News suggested the Senators moniker, the Toronto Evening Star made its own bold proclamation: “The Ottawas are called the Lumbermen.”25 There are no other references to Ottawa being called the Lumbermen, so it appears that the Senators name won out in the end. As for the “Wanderers,” it’s likely that the moniker was applied later by historians, reflecting the team’s midseason relocation.

The club finished last in the Eastern League with a 53-70 record. Despite only playing for two months in the Eastern League, the Ottawa Journal (citing a Toronto newspaper’s report) revealed the team owners had already lost $4,000.26 The club disbanded in November 1898, ending Ottawa’s brief stint in professional baseball.

STEVE RENNIE is a former journalist now working in the Canadian government. He grew up in the village of Osgoode, which is now part of the city, and got to see the Ottawa Lynx in their heyday. His baseball writing includes articles for the SABR Team Ownership Histories Project and an upcoming piece on the short-lived Eastern International League of 1888. In the spring of 2024, he presented on Ottawa’s early baseball history at the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference in Cooperstown, New York. He is the president of SABR’s Ottawa-Gatineau and Eastern Ontario chapter.He has a particular interest in nineteenth-century baseball in Canada and enjoys unearthing forgotten games and teams from the sport’s early history for the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research and Protoball. He lives in Ottawa with his wife Joanna and their two children.

 

NOTES

1 “A Ball Team,” Ottawa Citizen, July 11, 1898: 1.

2 “Is Sport Here On The Decline?” Ottawa Citizen, June 23, 1898: 8.

3 “Will Ottawa Get Into Line?” Ottawa Citizen, June 24, 1898: 8.

4 “The Ottawa Ball Team,” Ottawa Citizen, July 14, 1898: 1.

5 “Left ‘Em All,” Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 1898: 8.

6 “Left ‘Em All.”

7 “Sporting,” Ottawa Journal, July 13, 1898: 7.

8 “Fever Raging,” Ottawa Citizen, July 13, 1898: 8.

9 “Clymer Was Reminiscent,” Ottawa Journal, December 8, 1898: 6.

10 “Ottawa Lost,” Ottawa Citizen, July 16, 1898: 6.

11 “Beaten Again,” Ottawa Citizen, July 18, 1898: 6.

12 “Beaten Again.”

13 “New Baseball Uniform,” Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 1898: 1.

14 “Base Hits,” Montreal Gazette, August 15, 1898: 5.

15 “Downed By Ottawa,” Montreal Daily Star, August 13, 1898: 15.

16 “News And Comment,” Sporting Life, September 17, 1898: 5.

17 “Baseball Brevities,” Buffalo Commercial, September 3, 1898: 4.

18 “More Money Is Necessary,” Ottawa Journal, August 5, 1898: 7.

19 “Comment,” Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 1898: 4.

20 “To Call Us ‘Senators,’” Ottawa Journal, July 19, 1898: 6.

21 “Eastern League Games,” Ottawa Citizen, August 13, 1898: 6.

22 “The Sporting World,” Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 1898: 6.

23 “Ottawa Did The Trick Again,” Ottawa Journal, August 20, 1898: 6.

24 “The Sporting World,” Ottawa Citizen, August 22, 1898: 6.

25 “Baseball Notes,” (Toronto) Evening Star, July 21, 1898: 7.

26 “Looking For Sympathy,” Ottawa Journal, September 10, 1898: 6.