Further compiling the uniforms, logos, graphics, hardware, anything uniform & logo related to each championship year…
This is the 1926 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
In the regular season, the team wore bland home uniforms, and pinstriped Birds on the Bat road uniforms.
When the Cardinals reached the World Series, they received 3 sets of new uniforms. The first uniform on the left is similar to the regular season home uniform, but with more red piping and a new STL emblem on the sleeve. The road uniform and the other home uniform both featured the same Birds on the Bat, which was also a new Birds on the Bat rendering. The road uniforms allegedly had green pinstripes and green sock stripes.
St. Louis Globe Democrat: October 3, 1926
The uniforms are the same as the road uniforms made by Leacock for the St. Louis National League during the past year. They are steel gray with dark green stripes. Two cardinal birds and a baseball bat are embroidered in silk on the shirt. The cap has a cardinal visor. The stockings are gray with a center stripe of cardinal and two green stripes. The at-home uniforms are of white with cardinal trimmings, cardinal belt. the monogram St. L on the left sleeve, and the white stockings with three narrow cardinal stripes.
Does that mean the newspaper is claiming the regular season road uniforms also had green pinstripes? Because the Cardinals have a 26 road uniform in their collection, and it does not have green pinstripes. If they are referring only to the World Series uniform, while the Cardinals don’t own that jersey, we have some good photos of it.
Here is the alleged green pinstriped jersey shown below.
This 1926 World Series road jersey was worn by Jim Bottomley. Perhaps it has faded in color, because it is very hard to tell if the pinstripes are green or blue. You be the judge.
Shown above is the shirt tail of the jersey, which has Bottomley’s name embroidered in. Above the white line is the original photograph we received which is very yellow in tint. Below the white line has been color corrected to try and get a more natural tone from the pinstripes. And overlayed is a few color samples we think may be close. Is the jersey faded? Are the stripes blue? green? turquois? You be the judge!
Also take a look below at a photo of Bottomley wearing that very jersey.
Notice of the shape of the birds, and where the pinstripes run through the logo.
This jersey has been the source of some discussion on authenticity, notably because it has no player name sewn into the front tail of the shirt. Based on the chainstitch embroidery and the shapes of the birds, we are fairly certain this is a 1926 World Series home jersey, however, we unfortunately have no photography from the 26 Series to corroborate it. The stitching technique and the shape of the birds seemingly matching the shape of the birds on the road jersey is what convinces us. Another theory is maybe the uniforms were made as an option for the team during the Series, but never worn.
We are including this jersey because it was originally a 1926 World Series home jersey. It was repurposed in the offseason with a chainstitched single bird that says WORLDS CHAMPIONS. But take a look at the STL on the sleeve, it matches with photographs of the 1926 World Series home uniforms. See below.
Note the piping and the STL similarity to the jersey above.
This is the press pin for the 1926 World Series. Press pins were given out to members of the media present at the games to document. The designs of these pins proved very popular, and they have become collectors items. They also have been so popular that they still get made with unique designs for modern World Series. The Cardinals own a complete set of all 19 official pins.
These two images are the 1926 World Series championship ring. The pictures come from WorldSeriesRings.net. These rings are considerably modest compared to today’s championship rings. Note the little Birds on the Bat on the sides of the ring.
These two covers have become popular identities of the 1926 Series. The first showing Rogers Hornsby and Miller Huggins, both who played for Cardinals, but at the time Hornsby was player-manager for the Cardinals and Huggins was manager for the Yankees.
The latter image shows a great illustration of the Birds on the Bat, a graphic that was often recycled and reused in subsequent years.
Above is a selection of buttons by fans for the Series. Very similar designs across all of them.
Here is a higher res photo of another button.
The photo above is taken at the World Series with the team in their new uniforms.
This photo above is also taken in their new uniforms at the World Series. The photo is doctored to black out the background to add the Pennant Winner declaration.
Here’s the original photo taken.
Here is a group of headshots of the Cardinals from 1926.
For all the artifacts and info on the 1926 Cardinals, check out the link to that page.
In the Series, the Cardinals faced one of the greatest teams of all time. They say the 1927 Yankees is the best team of all time, but the 1926 Yankees is more or less the same team of players, one year younger. The Series was a Best of 7 that went all 7 games, and dramatically finished when Babe Ruth was thrown out trying to steal 2nd base to end the Series. This was the Cardinals’ first official World Series title and the first as the Cardinals. They had not competed in the postseason since they were the Browns in 1888, 38 years before.
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 