Last week we made a post about two jerseys Jeff Scott showed me where the numbers on back were fully chain stitched. Looking at all the details, Jeff and I think these two jerseys were likely made in 1933. The Cardinals uniforms did not go through any noticeable changes in 1934 and 1935, so we were curious to know if the Cardinals utilized chain stitched numbers on back only in 1933, but we couldn’t find any other back of jersey photos. So, we reached out to the Cardinals Museum, because we know they have a 1933 Hornsby jerseys in their collection, and Amy Berra, the Cardinals Museum curator, very graciously was able to snap a pic of the back of the 1933 Hornsby jersey. And here it is!
As you can see, it is a felt number, definitely not chain stitched.
This leaves us with more questions. Why are the numbers of these two jerseys chain stitched? Were the Cardinals only experimenting with chain stitch numbers in 1933? Going out on a limb with no evidence of this, but was chain stitch numbers only used for road uniforms? Were these uniforms made for some sort of special event and no felt numbers were available? Unfortunately we don’t know, and this is now a history mystery.
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 