1944 Cardinals Zippers v. Buttons

Jeff Scott sent me another great email this week that lead to us making a quick update to the 1944 page. He had seen a 1944 Pepper Martin jersey up for auction, and sent out an email to Heritage Auctions asking for clarifications about the jersey.

Here’s the jersey in question:

In Jeff’s email to Heritage, he included our research from the 1944 page that said the following, “The 1944 uniforms remained the same from 1943. When they clinched the Pennant in 1944, they switched their jerseys to button down shirts. The uniform didn’t change any elements other than swapping the zipper for buttons. We believe the team received their new uniforms about a week or two before the end of the season when they clinched the Pennant. We also base this claim on a photo of Musial at the end of the season, where he is seen with a button down shirt.”

And yes, we believed, based on the photography we had, the Cardinals switched to buttoned jerseys right before the World Series. This Pepper Martin jersey, however, might prove otherwise, and prove that the Cardinals wore button down jerseys for much more of the 1944 season than we had previously believed.

Jeff continued sleuthing and wrote to Heritage:
Martin did play in regular season games through October 1. BUT … beginning September 15, the team was on the road for the remainder of the season. Martin’s last home game was September 12 (https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=martipe01&t=b&year=1944). If the team switched to buttons “a week or two before the end of the season,” Martin would have worn only a road jersey with buttons. He would not have worn a home jersey with buttons until the World Series — and Martin didn’t play in the World Series. According to Baseball Reference, he’s one of 22 players listed in the WS stats, so it seems he was on the postseason roster. But he didn’t play in the Series (https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1944_WS.shtml). So, unless you have evidence that the Cardinals don’t have, AT BEST, he wore this jersey for three games as a spectator on the bench. As such, I find the phrase, “Heavy wear, attributed to Martin, minor league use and storage, includes fabric discoloration, fraying to the braiding and scattered moth holes” to be misleading. In fact, there’s nothing in the description that addresses buttons vs. zippers. Unless you know what to look for, you’d read this description and assume Martin wore this jersey throughout the season.

Heritage Auctions sent back an awesome email with a bunch of evidence and photography to support the jersey’s claim. Check it out!

Heritage Auctions:
Hi Jeff, I would like to respond to your recent email regarding the 1944 Pepper Martin jersey. Actually, we do have evidence that you and the Cardinals don’t have. The timeline put forth above by “Cardinals Uniforms & Logos” is that the team did not start wearing button down jerseys until they hand clinched the pennant, which happened on September 21, 1944. However, the photographic evidence below shows that the team was wearing button down jerseys as early in the season as July and continued to wear them in August and September, well before the date of September 21, 1944. You might want to relay these facts to the authors of book, so that they can update their publication with the correct information.

EXHIBIT #1
This photograph of Stan Musial, Johnny Hopp, and Billy Southworth shows the trio wearing road button downs and is used in newspapers throughout late July 1944, the earliest dating to July 27. Though we suspect the image may have been taken a week prior when the team visited the Polo Grounds.

EXHIBIT #2
An original photograph of the 1944 St. Louis Cardinals shows the entire team wearing home button downs and is dated August 20, 1944 on the paper caption.

EXHIBIT #3
This original photograph of the 1944 St. Louis Cardinals outfielders shows Augie Bergamo, Johnny Hopp, Stan Musial, Danny Lithwiler, Pepper Martin, and Debs Garms wearing home button downs and is dated September 12, 1944 on the paper caption.

Additional Notes:
Based on the photographic evidence, it seems more likely that the Cardinals wore zippered jerseys during the first half the 1944 season (before the All Star Game on July 11) and button-down jerseys during the second half of the season (after the All-Star Game on July 11).
Also, based on the photographic evidence, the belief that “He would not have worn a home jersey with buttons until the World Series” is factually incorrect as the team played 34 home games (including the World Series) after July 27. As such, Martin would have been wearing a button-down jersey for at least 43% of home games (34 total home games, not “three,” based on the July 27 image) or as much as 50% of home games (if you believe the team switched jerseys after the All-Star Game, which is highly plausible).

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

According to Heritage Auctions, it would seem the Cardinals likely started the 1944 season wearing zippered jerseys, but after the All Star Game switched to button jerseys, which they wore through the ’44 World Series.

Awesome research! Many thanks to Jeff Scott as always, and to Heritage Auctions for sleuthing this one.

Edits have been made to the 1944 page to reflect the new research.

1943-1945 Cardinals