Uniform & Team History
Rube Foster, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, founded the Chicago American Giants in 1911 and managed them through 1926. The club was active into the 1950s.
Oldtime Game History
The late Tim Wakefield, the legendary knuckleballer who won 200 games during his big-league career — all but 14 of those victories as a member of the Red Sox — wore this uniform when he came out of retirement to pitch in the 2018 Oldtime Baseball Game. Wakefield pitched a shutout inning. He did give up a single to left field by Hockey Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque, who offered to play in the game for the sole purpose of batting against Wakefield, an old golfing buddy of his.
Wakefield was 57 when he died of cancer on October 1, 2023. Our Chicago American Giants uniform will always be worn in his memory.
First baseman Chris Shaw of Lexington and Boston College, who wore this uniform in 2014, was selected in the first round of the 2015 Major League Baseball amateur draft (31st pick overall) by the San Francisco Giants. Shaw made it to the big leagues with the Giants in 2018 and ’19.
Former Red Sox lefty Lenny DiNardo wore it in 2022 when he made an appearance as a pinch hitter. Thus, this is the only uniform in our collection to be worn by three players who appeared in the big leagues.
Also worn by:
Connor O’Sullivan-Pierce, Trinity College (’09); Joe Clark, New England College (’10); Danny Findley, Bowdoin College (’11); Brendan Casey, Azusa Pacific University (’12); Mike Cunningham, Suffolk University (’13); Anthony Maselli, Boston College (’15); Tommy Haugh, Bentley University (alum) (’16-17); Anthony Teberio, Wheaton College (’22); Chris Kustigian, UMass-Dartmouth (’23).