This is the 1928 National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals in the regular season wore two different style uniforms. The home uniform featured a single bird on a bat, while the road uniform featured the Birds on the Bat.
When the team reached the World Series, they brought out new uniforms with a new manufacturer. The new manufacturer, Sainz, was trying to win the permanent contract for the Cardinals uniforms, but because of garment construction issue, the uniforms were not well received by the players. See newspaper articles about the players’ disdain.
St. Louis Globe Democrat: October 10, 1928
The Cardinals were clothed in their new uniforms yesterday. They were supposed to have worn them Sunday, but the uniforms did not fit. They were retailored, however, during the day of idleness. The new clothes were plain cream white with Red Bird trimmings, red-visored caps and white stockings with three red stripes.
The Knoxville Journal: October 4, 1928
The St. Louis Cardinals were attired in new uniforms when they came out for the final workout. A few of the players rebelled against the idea of wearing new uniforms, but they gave in. The uniforms have red stripes and two red birds across the breast. “I wish we had kept our old uniforms,” McKechnie said.
Oakland Tribune: October 8, 1928
OLD UNIFORMS FAIL TO CHANGE LUCK OF CARDS
Clothes did not make the man make base hits. The Cardinals wore new road uniforms while in New York, and must have felt self conscious. Here at home, they scored their new white uniforms and wore their old ones.
St. Louis Star and Times: October 8, 1928
The first ominous note was sounded when Manager McKechnie announced that nice, new uniforms, fresh from the tailor, were on hand and that everybody was to don one, despite any and all superstitions relative to new baseball raiment. “That’s bad luck,” whispered Butch, the bat boy. “We ought to use the old ones.” There were a number of protests, but McKechnie was firm, and the new suits were passed out. Presently the boys began pulling them on and then came a cry from the Rabbit:
“Say, what the hell? This suit was made for Little Boy Blue.”
“mine wouldn’t fit my kid,” said Bill Sherdel.
“Ah got one that fits like a tent,” said Flint (“Shad”) Rhem.
“They cut my size down to fit my batting average,” said Chick Hafey.
“This ain’t a uniform; it’s a baby’s romper,” shouted George Harper.
Not a uniform fit–not one, with the exception of the pants and shirt selected out of thirty uniforms by this writer, and the tailor, didn’t have the reporter’s measure!
“I said it was bad luck,” said Butch.
“Get out the old suits,” shouted McKechnie, “this isn’t a dress parade, anyway.”
The tailor arriving at that moment for autographs and congratulations on his creations, got a fine raspberry reception.
“Poor wretch,” said McKechnie, “I feel sorry for him.”
That wasn’t the end of the uniform tragedy, for some of the old suits had been stolen by souvenir seekers. Ray Blades, who eventually got all dressed up (just to strike out in a pinch), had a terrible time finding a shirt. “I want my shirt,” was his plaintive wail; “it’s got my name on it.” Bottomley had a tough time finding wearing apparel and, giving up finally, put on his shoes and an old cap and, picking up his mitt, advanced toward the clubhouse door in his B.V.D.’s. Well-meaning friends restrained him.
Douthit had to get a needle and thread to mend a rip in an old cap, which prompted Alexander the Great to inquire: “Say, Taylor, did you study home economics out at dear old California?”
We have a very large number of closeup photographs of the Cardinals in New York in the new uniforms. The shirts are seen as being very baggy, and the Birds on the Bat were stitched incredibly inconsistent from uniform to uniform. See compilation of uniforms below.
These road pinstriped uniforms were worn for Game 1 and 2 in New York. When the team came back to St. Louis for Game 3, they wore a home version of the Sainz uniforms. Fortunately a physical sample exists. See below.
Unfortunately we have very few photographs of players wearing the home uniform. Below in the team photo, two men in the back row are wearing the new uniforms, and three in the front row are also wearing the new uniforms. The rest of the team is wearing their regular season uniforms.
In this next photo below, this is an actual shot from the game with the team wearing the new uniforms.
The team resorted to wearing their standard Home uniforms from the regular season in the final game of the Series.
Above is the World Series Press Pin. This design must have proven popular, as they would recycle this overall design with minor tweaks in subsequent Cardinals World Series.
These two images above are button pins worn by fans.
Seen in the title image, the 1928 Souvenir Program featured the two managers. Miller Huggins for the Cardinals and Bill Mckechnie for the Cardinals.
The 1928 score card, almost identical to the 1926 score card.
Perhaps the new uniforms were bad luck. The Bronx bombers offensively dominated and the Cardinals were swept in 4 games. This was the 2nd National League Pennant for the Cardinals in 3 seasons, and wouldn’t be the last for the next few years. The success of the Cardinals in the late 1920s and early 1930s would begin to cement them as as premier major league baseball team and oft contender for the World Series.
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 