Three players appeared in every game for the Whites. Parson Nicholson hit lead off in every game, playing second base and occasionally right field.
Every box score for the May 20 game against Omaha lists Bart Cantz as batting leadoff and playing right field, and puts Nicholson batting seventh at second base. However, the Omaha Republican states in the article about the game that "Nicholson opened up and was quickly struck out" and then later reports that Staley (batting ninth) scored on a double by Nicholson, and also that Arundel (not listed in the box scores at all) fouled out before Dolan (batting eighth) grounded out. The Omaha Daily Bee also reports Nicholson drove in Staley with a double. On the other hand, the Omaha Daily Herald attributes the actions of Nicholson described above to Cantz, and reports that Nicholson scored on a double by Cantz. Given the lineups of every other game, I tend to think that box scores were wrong for some unknown reason.
Jack Crooks batted third in every game but the Whites final game (after first baseman Jake Beckley was sold to Chicago), playing third base, second base or shortstop. Ernie Burch, a former starter for the National League Brooklyn club, played left field for all 39 games and batted cleanup (again until the final game). The Whites lineup featured Nicholson - Beckley - Crooks - Burch batting 1-2-3-4 for 38 games, unil Beckley and Harry Staley were sold to the National League Chicagos. In the Whites final game, Crooks and Burch moved up one spot each.
The next player in the lineup every day after Burch was Joe Herr. Herr played shortstop in every game but one (he was sick) through the first month plus of the season. In early June, Chippy McGarr, second baseman for the Browns, got hurt, and Herr was transferred to the Browns on June 9. In all, Herr played in 29 games with the Whites. His final game with the Whites, on June 8, was the last game the Whites won.
Batting sixth after Herr on Opening Day and playing right field was Henry "Hunky" Hines. Hines got hurt early in the season and missed eleven games. After he returned, he took over in center field until Herr left, at which point he moved to shortstop. In all, Hines played in 28 games for the Whites.
Bart Cantz, signed as a catcher, played in 32 games for the Whites, mostly in the outfield. Cantz split time between catcher (catching Ed Sproat's three starts), right field, and the bench over the first fifteen games of the season. After Hines returned from his injury, Cantz settled into right field (with just a few more games catching) and batted behind Hines the rest of the way.
The remaining spots in the lineup bounced between the catchers and the starting pitchers. Tug Arundel and Tom Dolan split most of the catching duties after the first six games. Harry Staley and Fred Nyce were the main starters for the Whites, starting 33 of the 39 games. After Herr was transferred to the Browns, moving Hines to shortstop, Nyce or Staley also played in the outfield some games when they were not pitching.
Jake Kenyon appeared in 13 games for the Whites. Kenyon was signed in early December 1887 for the Whites. He caught for the Browns in the first few games of spring training (against the Whites, catching Pete Somers), and on April 4, 1888 the Sporting Life reported that he was released by the Whites and signed by the Browns. He did not appear in another spring training game after that. Kenyon played center field for the Whites on Opening Day (put into the lineup after Jerry McCormick was injured during pre-game warmups) and became the regular center fielder when Hines was injured. After Hines returned, Kenyon did not play again with the Whites (or the Browns, either) until the Whites final game; the departure of Beckley and Staley left the club short-handed.
Three pitchers started games for the Whites besides Staley and Nyce. Ed Sproat was signed by the Whites in December 1887, but was sick for all of spring training and did not pitch until the second game of the season. Sproat and Staley alternated starts through the first six games. Sproat won his first two starts, but in his third start, he got sick and lost the game by a score of 15-8. (The papers reported he could barely throw the ball over the plate after the third inning.) That was his last game with the Whites; Sproat vanishes from the newspapers after that game.
Presumably Sproat returned to his hometown of Louisville shortly after his last start, but I have found no mention of his release or departure in contemporary newspapers. He did pitch again briefly in 1895 in the Southern League for Montgomery.
Nyce took over as the second pitcher for the Whites. It is not clear if Nyce was intended to be a third starter with Staley and Sproat, as to that point the Whites had only needed two starters. However, Nyce made his first start the day after Sproat's last start, which suggests the original plan was to have a three-man rotation.
While Sproat was never replaced on the roster, in three other games the Whites used spot starters. On June 1, a pitcher named Reynolds, a 'local amateur', started for St. Louis in Des Moines. The Whites had played two double headers (and six games total) in the previous five days and needed a fresh starter. Reynolds got hammered, and the Whites lost by a score of 21-7. The first game of the first of those double headers was started by a pitcher identified as 'Hughes' in the box score. Hughes was in fact Globe Democrat sports editor Joe Murphy, as identified in the game article in the Omaha Daily Bee. Murphy also started the Whites final game on June 20 under the name Farquhar, after Staley was sold to Chicago. Sproat (3 starts), Murphy (2 starts) and Reynolds (1 start) covered the six starts not taken by Nyce and Staley.
Charles Alcott was signed by Von der Ahe on October 25, 1887, the day before St. Louis was formally accepted into the Western Association. He got hurt towards the end of spring training
Alcott started at third base for the first 16 preseason games, then missed the last four, plus the first three games of the season. While no article mentions an injury, the Globe Democrat reports "Alcott made his reappearance, at third" in the article on the May 3 game.
and missed Opening Day and the next two games. He came back to play in two games (May 3 and May 6), and then was cut from the club. His departure corresponded with the first game for Tug Arendul; he was probably cut to keep costs down. After cutting Alcott and the departure of Sproat, the Whites roster remained mostly fixed for the rest of their existance, except for three players used as fill-ins in two of their final games.
The final road games for the Whites took place in Chicago in late June. On June 17, the Whites used two players as fill-ins, Flynn (rf) and Brown (cf). Brown was actually Fred Tilden, a former Harvard player.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat reported that "a Yale College pitcher named Tilden played with the visitors under the name Brown", while the St. Paul Globe reported that Browns was "a well-known Chicago boy of a far different name." Tilden played for Harvard, not Yale, but was the son of wealthy Chicago family. His father, William Tilden, was cousin to the 1876 Democratic Presidential Candidate Samuel Tilden.
Both Tilden and Flynn likely came from the Chicago Commercial League. Two days after Flynn and Brown, Pete Gallagher filled in at third base. Gallagher played with Minnesota earlier in the season and would play with the Chicago Maroons later in the season. These were the last three (new) players to appear with the Whites, even if only for one game each.
| Player | Age | # games | Positions | Notes | |
| Charles Alcott | 31 | 2 | 3B | Born: 1957 Died: January 14, 1920 |
Released May 7, 1888. |
| Tug Arundel | 26 | 18 | C-3B-P | Born: June 30, 1862 Died: September 5, 1912 |
Signed from Indianapolis towards the end of spring training. |
| Jake Beckley | 20 | 38 | 1B | Born: August 4, 1867 Died: June 25, 1918 |
Sold to Pittsburgh on June 19, 1888. |
| Ernie Burch | 31 | 39 | LF | Born: September 9, 1856 Died: October 12, 1892 |
|
| Bart Cantz | 28 | 32 | RF-C | Born: January 29, 1860 Died: February 12, 1943 |
Transferred to the Browns after the Whites disbanded; released by the Browns in July 1888 without playing in a game. |
| Jack Crooks | 22 | 39 | 3B-2B-SS | Born: November 9, 1865 Died: February 2, 1918 |
Sold to Omaha on June 20, 1888. |
| Tom Dolan | 33 | 25 | C-OF-INF | Born: January 10, 1855 Died: January 16, 1913 |
Transferred to the Browns after the Whites disbanded. |
| Flynn | 1 | RF | Played in one game on June 17, 1888. | ||
| Pete Gallagher | 28 | 1 | 3B | Born: January, 1860 Died: May 20, 1917 |
Played in one game on June 19, 1888. |
| Joseph Herr | 23 | 29 | SS-P | Born: March 4, 1865 Died: August 1, 1936 |
Transferred to the Browns on June 9, 1888. |
| Henry Hines | 20 | 28 | CF-RF-SS | Born: September 29, 1867 Died: January 2, 1928 |
|
| Jake Kenyon | 26 | 13 | CF | Born: 1862 Died: November 3, 1919 |
|
| Joe Murphy | 21 | 2 | P | Born: September 7, 1866 Died: March 28, 1951 |
Started two games, May 27 (as Hughes) and June 20 (as Farquhar). |
| Parson Nicholson | 25 | 39 | 2B-RF-SS | Born: April 14, 1863 Died: February 28, 1917 |
|
| Fred Nyce | 21 | 17 | P-OF | Born: 1867 Died: January 27, 1913 |
|
| Reynolds | 1 | P | Started one game on June 1, 1888. | ||
| Ed Sproat | 23 | 3 | P | Born: December 4, 1864 Died: September 29, 1915 |
Last game was May 7, 1888. |
| Harry Staley | 21 | 23 | P-OF | Born: November 3, 1866 Died: January 12, 1910 |
Sold to Pittsburgh on June 19, 1888. |
| Fred Tilden | 24 | 1 | CF | Born: January 20, 1864 Died: January 8, 1923 |
Played in one game on June 17 under the alias Brown. |
Four players appeared with the Whites during spring training of 1888, but did not play in a regular season game. Harry Lyons was signed by the St. Louis Browns in late 1887 after Yank Robinson was hurt. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 16, 1887, Bill Gleason’s fielding deteriorated during the championship series against Detroit to the point where Lyons took over at shortstop for the Browns. Gleason ended up being traded to Philadelphia during the off-season, and Lyons was expected to start for the Browns in 1888. However Lyons did not play in the Browns first two games of spring training in March of 1888 (against the Whites). Accordingly, in the third game between the two clubs, Lyons and Parson Nicholson (another Browns player who had sat out the first two games) started for the Whites to get some playing time. Lyons was subsequently taken on the Browns spring trip south to Memphis and New Orleans, while Nicholson was left in St. Louis, where he continued playing with the Whites (and was ultimately formerly transferred to the club). Lyons played in 123 games for the Browns in 1888, mostly in the outfield.
Pete Somers was a left handed pitcher signed by Von der Ahe in late 1887. He pitched for the Browns in their first four spring training games (all against the Whites), but like Nicholson was left behind in St. Louis when the Browns headed south. He instead went with the Whites on their spring trip through Illinois and Iowa during the last few weeks of April before Opening Day. He started five games with the Whites in spring training, winning four of them. It is unclear if Somers was ever a member of the Whites, as indications are that he was signed by to play for the Browns. (He is pictured with and identified with the Browns on his cards in the Old Judge set.) He was released in early May (just days before Sproat's last start) and returned to his home in Mansfield, Ohio. Later in the summer, he pitched a no-hitter for Columbus against Akron in the Ohio State League.
Going into spring training, the Whites had only one true outfielder (Burch, signed in February) on the roster. They had other players who had previously played in the outfield, but none of them were primarily outfielders before joining the Whites. For their first four spring games (in which Burch did not play), they used Hines in left field, Jerry McCormick in center field and Frank Weikart in right field. Weikart was a St. Louis player who had played second base and pitched for Hot Springs, AR in the Southwest League the previous season. He lasted three games with the Whites before being released to sign with Houston for the 1888 season. Jerry McCormick was one of the few Whites with previous major league experience, having played with Baltimore of the American Association in 1883 and with Philadelphia and Washington in the Union Association in 1884. He was primarily a third baseman, but he started in centerfield for all but one of the Whites 20 preseason games (starting at third base in the final game of spring training). He hurt his shoulder during pre-game warmups on Opening Day and was expected to miss at least a month from the injury. He was cut less than a week later.
| Player | Age | # games | Positions | Notes | |
| Harry Lyons | 22 | 1 | 3B | Born: March 25, 1866 Died: June 29, 1912 |
Played one game in spring training on March 28, 1888 on loan from the Browns. |
| Jerry McCormick | 26 | 20 | CF-3B | Born: December 31, 1861 Died: September 11, 1905 |
Released May 4, 1888. |
| Pete Somers | 20 | 5 | P | Born: 1868 Died: December 31, 1921 |
Released May 4, 1888. |
| F.B. Weikart | 23 | 3 | RF | Born: 1865 Died: July 17, 1933 |
Released early in April 1888. |
Two players were listed in the newspapers as starters for that day's game, but did not end up playing in the game. After Sproat's last start on May 7, Nyce and Staley started the next two games on May 8 and May 9. On May 10, both the Globe Democrat and the St. Louis Republican reported that the starter for that game would be Jim Burns, not Sproat, as might be expected. In the game article the next day, the Globe Democrat reported that Burns accepted an offer from Leavenworth (of the Western League) that morning and decided not to pitch for the Whites. Nyce started instead, got hit hard, and the Whites lost 9-8, surrendering the lead in the bottom of the ninth.
The second player to not play with the Whites was Jim Devlin. At 22 years old, Devlin was the oldest pitcher on the Browns club, but was behind the other three in the rotation. He only pitched in four games during spring training, lost his first start for the Browns in the bottom of the tenth inning, and then was left in St. Louis when the Browns set off on their first road trip of the season. Staley pitched on Opening Day for the Whites, and then Devlin was listed as the starter for the second game. That game, and the next, were rained out, and Sproat ended up starting the second game when it was finally played on May 1. Nonetheless, as April ended and May started, rumors persisted that Staley was going to be transferred to the Browns and Devlin would go to the Whites. The roster rules of the time precluded this from happening.
As the Whites returned home after their final road games in Chicago, having left Beckley and Staley behind (sold to the Chicago Nationals), the club was down to just eight players (Arundel, Burch, Cantz, Crooks, Dolan, Hines, Nicholson, Nyce). Kenyon and Murphy played in the game on June 20 against Des Moines (Nyce got the day off). After the game, Crooks was sold to Omaha. The game on June 21 was rained out. On June 22, the Whites submitted a lineup in which Kenyon was in center field and Devlin was in right field. Des Moines protested because Devlin was under contract with the Browns. (Some reports indicate that Kenyon's status was also brought into question.) The umpire upheld the protest, and the Whites forfeited the game. The same lineup was presented on June 23, to the same end. The Whites folded that evening. Devlin never appeared in a game with the Whites.
| Player | Age | # games | Positions | Notes | |
| Jim Burns | P | Listed as starter for May 10, 1888 but did not play. | |||
| Jim Devlin | 22 | P | Born: April 16, 1866 Died: December 14, 1900 |
Put in lineup on June 22 and June 23, 1888 resulting in forfeited games. |