Baseball Team Tintype Photo
 

This is my first post here and thanks very much for having me. I recently acquired this baseball tintype photo and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or information about it. I am attaching a few photos and a close up of one of the player's jersey. It is roughly 3.75 x 5 inches in size. The team jersey says "B. Actives" So, I believe the name of the team to be the "Actives" and maybe the "B." stands for the city they are from or stands for baseball. Any thoughts? The image is a reverse image, so we flipped it around to be able to read it easier and zoomed in on the jersey. Each of the players have their position on their jersey and in the top row you can see CF, RF, LF, and C and appears to be a P down on the players below in the first row. You can see some baseball bats and a catcher's mask. I have researched catcher's masks and they didn't exist until 1876, so I believe the picture of course has to be after that year. I am an avid baseball fan and collector and thought some people might be interested in seeing this.

Disclaimer: I once posted a tintype photo on ebay and thought it might be a baseball team and took a lot of heat over it. I thought some people in the photo looked like several guys from a professional team and people thought I was completely nuts. I am not an expert and was actually just searching for more information. I am posting this because it made several people very upset on this board at that time. I accept responsibility for my error and understand if you do not want to comment on my post. I contacted someone who is an expert recently and they told me to take a hike because they remembered me. I am not trying to hide my identity or make something out of this. I am just hoping to fit in with the group as we share the same passion for baseball and maybe find out a little more about the history of this team. Thanks very much for your time and forgiveness.

Welcome :)
Well, you said you aren't trying to hide your identity but did I miss seeing your name in your post somewhere? Of course there is the registration but if you want to be transparent it seems you would want members to know who you are? It doesn't sound like what you did before was a big deal but it sounds like you might have been a little mousey :).....live and learn.
ps...not sure about the tintype right now. Assuming it's a catchers mask and other equipment it is neat but not super valuable unless there is something extraordinary about the content.

Tin
 

Cool image. Guessing late 1800s if not early 1900s. Price range at auction $180 -- $200...here on the BST board maybe $150. Wish I could be sure it's a baseball team...bats look a bit thin and long. Polo?

I think you can be sure it’s baseball with the player positions on the bib fronts. I also think you can likely date it to pre-1894, which is when bib- or shield-fronts disappear from the Spalding catalog.

I had seen that recently offered but backed off. It appears to be c. 1880 but the aging looked odd to me. I’ve seen lots of tintypes but they don’t typically age like this one. It’s possible that it looks that way because it’s later in the era of tintypes when the process may have changed slightly. Do you have a photo of the back that you can share?

Rob M

Thanks guys! Appreciate the feedback. The front does have a lot of wear on it and the back is purely black. I am having a hard time getting images with my camera to be small enough to list here. Everything is too big and I am not technologically skilled enough to make the images smaller. I had to use someone else's camera to load it on here. It does seem right around the 1877 to 1890 range to me from the research that I did online. Actives and Active were the names of some of the first teams in baseball in the 1864 to 1880 era. I saw that the Wright and Ditson guide has 7 teams listed as being the Actives. None of the cities started with the letter B. So, maybe this is a later era and none of the players were recognizable to me. Not sure what the "B" stands for though but definitely thought it to be a baseball team because of the positions on the players bibs.

I know a lot of town teams had a secondary (or junior or "muffin") team. I wonder if the "B" could relate to that.

Rob M

The Wright & Ditson Guide listed teams with some prominence. The team pictured here is likely an unknown town team. I say it is around 1885-90, and while an interesting image it has some significant condition issues.