The Face of MLB

[UKBaseballfan]

The purpose of this thread is to act as the interactive venue for the development of a new facepack. This facepack is to be entitled the colourpack, or in deference to our hosts, colorpack, to differentiate it from the existing facepacks. It is a development of the existing facepacks, the Pegasus27 batters and pitchers facepacks and the main facepack.

There will be an emphasis on color but to a significant degree the images will be in black and white, especially for the first half of MLB history. The target will be to not just produce an image for every player or for every team they played on but an image for every year of their career. This is particularly applicable for the 19th century when the number of images in baseball uniform is greatly reduced.

I am well aware the problems large sized files can present in terms of memory for users. Files will be available for download on a yearly basis. Images will be sorted into years on the basis of the players debut year. This being a stepping stone towards the eventual migration of individual year facepacks for all players for that year as has been achieved by Ceej from 1947 onwards. The facepack will require images to be held in a set standard size but larger images will be available on the thread. It would be helpful if images were posted on the thread in facepack ratio format (1:1.5) but that is not a requirement.

Most of us have a soft spot in our hearts for one baseball team, so it is also with image type. We all favour a particular type or era. The emphasis here will be on color which may not always be realistic in appearance but will give information in respect of eye color, hair color and uniform color that may be of assistance for colorizers to produce a more realistic end product themselves to replace the previously posted images.

Acknowledging the source of an image is a courtesy not a requirement. I do not wish potential contributors to be inhibited from sharing if they are unaware of the original source of an image in their collection, or indeed for any other reason. Please feel free to make as many posts as you see fit, the more the merrier. I acknowledge there will be plenty of gaps to fill and an upgrade to an exiting image is always very welcome. Indeed you may also be able to improve the appearance of an existing image by tweaking it a number of ways or editing out flaws. If you can provide a year for a previously undated image please do.

I am by no means a uniform expert but alongside this development I believe it would be useful to establish a database for MLB team's colors, particularly caps, that details in precise RGB values the colors they used throughout their history. This will assist in standardizing and making more realistic any potential colorizations. Contributions detailing this information or sources for such information will be very useful. Maybe a unifrom expert may be willing to take on this challenge?

I will be posting the first facepack very shortly which will be for 1871, and will progress chronologically. The project will be a long journey with many short steps to be undertaken. Thanks to OOTP for providing the platform for this trek.

It will also be the intention to post (a most wanted) number of quality black and white images for significant players where no color image is presently available, or lacking for a significant period in their career. If a colorizer decides to work on that image I would be grateful if they could indicate that to avoid duplication by someone else. I fully appreciate that the quality of a colorization is most dependent on the quality of the original black and white image.

Above all I want the development of this colorpack to be viewed as a community asset of use to many; fans, contributors, game players, researchers, historians, authors, etc.

Look for notification of updates in the original first post for each year posted.

[Jabez54]

Awesome !!! ... and ... looking forward to this new venture ... really appreciated the time and investment you are planning to do here ... thank you for gracing this thread to the OOTP World, mate ...

[UKBaseballfan]

1871 colorpack folder can be found for download here.

In addition or alternatively individual images can be viewed here


The colorpack incudes a reference for every player who made their debuts in 1871 including those where no images are available. In some cases images from the players non mlb days are included but these will not be dated.

I would be grateful to receive any comments, in respect of the colorpack.

Please post updates and missing yearly images to this thread.

Last Updated 24th February

[Jabez54]

Awesome Collection!!

[Terry D]

I applaud your project. It is a wonderful idea that will surely be of great benefit to all historians and hobbyists.

[UKBaseballfan]

The 1872 colorpack folder can be found for download here

In addition individual images can be viewed here

Last Updated 6th January

[Jabez54]

yippee !!!

[UKBaseballfan]

The 1873 colorpack is available for download here

Additionally or alternatively individual images can be viewed here

Updated 6th December

[UKBaseballfan]

The 1874 colorpack is available for download here

Additionally or alternatively individual images can be viewed here

Updated December 6th

[UKBaseballfan]

The 1875 colorpack can be downloaded here

Additionally or alternatively individual images can be viewed here

Last Updated 25th February.

[tnfoto]

Doc Bushong (1880), John Cassidy (1878), Silver Flint (1882), Bill Harbridge (1878) and Lon Knight (1880).

[tnfoto]

Cap Anson (1878), Ned Cuthbert (1875), Dickey Pearce (1875), Joe Start (1882) and Ezra Sutton (1877).

[tnfoto]

Bob V. Ferguson with the 1882 Troy Trojans.

Also note that the George_Wright_84 and Tom_York_84 images in the 1871 pack come from the 1882 Providence team woodcut shown below.

[tnfoto]

Jack Burdock (1878), Herman Dehlman (1875 and 1876) and Paul Hines (1890 x2).

[tnfoto]

Fraley Rogers (1872) and Herm Doscher. The Herm_Doscher image in the 1872 pack, clearer version shown below, comes from the 1877 London Tecumseh team photo.

[tnfoto]

Jack Manning (1877) and Pop Snyder (1878).

The Jack_Manning_78 in the 1873 pack would more accurately be listed as _77. The Boston Red Stockings composites from 1877 and 1878, both shown below, used many of the same photos, including Manning. Jack Burdock and Pop Snyder were the only additions to the 1878 group.

[tnfoto]

Tommy Bond (1877) and Jack Chapman (1875) for the 1874 pack and Charlie Waitt (1875) for the 1875 pack.

There is also an upgrade for Bill Hague of the 1875 pack here.

[tnfoto]

George Bradley (1875), Silver Flint (1879) and Pud Galvin (1878 [Buffalo] and 1882).

[tnfoto]

The Tricky_Nichols_80 image in the 1875 pack actually pictures Nichols with the National Association 1879 Worcester Grays, not the National League 1880 Worcester Ruby Legs. The uniforms for the two Worcester clubs were noticeably different, as shown in the team composites below.

[UKBaseballfan]

The 1876 colorpack can be downloaded here.

Alternatively or additionally individual images can be viewed here

Last Updated 24th January