When were numbers first used on baseball uniforms?

[Archive]

Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

One of the first things I noticed about my new Hugh Smith Home Run Kisses card was that he had a "number" patch on the shoulder of his uniform with the number 8. I knew early uniforms didn't have numbers. However, numbers were added later to the backs of uniforms, but shoulder numbers?

I couldn't remember ever seeing this before, so I decided to check the scans in my 1912 Zeenuts library to see if I could find any additional examples. At first, I thought maybe only the Los Angeles players had a patch. However, I then found other examples on other teams as well, although the shape of the patches varied from team to team.

I'm curious as to whether numbers had ever been used on uniforms previously or was the Pacific Coast League the first league to experiment with adding numbers to uniforms?

Below are some examples of cards showing players with "number" patches.