After August Busch bought the team in 1953, Sportsman Park was renovated and renamed Busch Stadium. During that renovation, the ballpark was decorated with what we call action birds. These birds are in baseball action poses, such as Slugger Bird, Diving Bird, Catching Bird, Running Bird, etc. We can see faint images of these banners…
In 1946 we know the Cardinals ordered satin uniforms to wear for night game. But when the players saw the uniforms, they said they looked like lingerie, and didn’t want to wear them. The Cardinals Museum obtained a Cardinals satin jersey, however it is gray/silver, not red, and it is marked 1948. The newspaper goes…
In 1940 the Cardinals wore two different caps, an interlocking STL and a block STL. We do not know the reason the Cardinals had two different caps. We do not know the designations for both caps.The interlocking STL emblem seems more familiar to us for two reasons. One, the modern cap has an interlocking STL,…
In 1929, we think the Cardinals road uniforms had red beaks. The Birds on the Bat design is similar to the home uniforms, but photography has proven they were stitched slightly different and the birds have different body shapes. Photography and physical samples that survive today of the 1929 home uniform clearly have yellow beaks.…
In the 1928 World Series and in the 1929 regular season we believe the Cardinals wore red pinstripes on their road uniforms. With the exception of a few green pinstriped uniforms, typically up until this point the Cardinals had always worn blue pinstripes, never red. Newspaper articles from the 1928 World Series use language similar…
In 1926, similar to the previous season, we have a claim about green stripes. But this time, they are describing the 1926 World Series road uniform, and beyond having green stripes on the sock, we believe the article is saying the jersey’s pinstripes were also green. We have two physical samples to go on. The…
In 1925 we have a newspaper article that makes two claims about the team’s colors. Apparently in 1925 the Cardinals road socks had green stripes. As far as we know, prior to April 6, 1925, the color green has never been mentioned in this team’s history. For a long time we assumed socks in the…
After eluding us for a long time, we found a collection of photographs and a newspaper corroboration that revealed the Cardinals “weekday” uniform was a pinstriped jersey that featured a single bird on branch. However, new research from Jeff Scott at birdbats.com has revealed the newspaper was incorrect. The Cardinals wore this single bird jersey…
1922 is the holy grail year for Cardinals artifacts because it was the first time in history the team wore the Birds on the Bat. There are currently no known artifacts or physical jersey samples from 1922. While we have some great photography from 1922, we want more, and we want more detailed photography. We…
A photo of Verne Clemons, identified as being from 1921, shows him wearing a jersey that says Cardinals. The lettering is very similar to the St. Louis lettering found on the 1921 uniforms, but it was applied so large on the jersey, it had to be rendered in a radically large arch. Even still, the…
We have a photograph, likely from February of 1953, of August Busch. We are fairly certain this shortly after Busch bought the Cardinals based on the newspapers seen on the table and the wall. Gussie is holding a pennant with a single Bird on Bat and the word Cardinals. Curiously, the border of the pennant…
In April of 1917 we have a newspaper account that says the Cardinals wore road uniforms consisting of gray shirts that said St. Louis across the front, and solid white socks. This account is especially confusing, because photographs show the team in 1917 didn’t have anything on the front of the jersey, and because the…
In the 1909-1910 era, baseball cards were created of the Cardinals, but were hand drawn. Based on the photographic record we see, the Cardinals wore fairly plain uniforms in this era, with just an STL on the sleeve. This artist, however, decided to sensationalize the uniforms, and added lots of piping and extra color to…
In 1883 the Browns denounced their Brown color and team identity in favor of Red and being called the St. Louis Club. It was met with much criticism around the league, and they went back to Brown the following season. Did the team not let the experiment play out long enough? In 1899, after the…
In the 19th century we have multiple newspaper accounts that describe the Browns uniforms, and especially the lettering on the jersey. Some times the newspaper accounts say they had “St. Louis” on the shirt, and sometimes they say “St. Louis Browns.” Reading that seems strange, as there are no photographs to corroborate these claims. So…
In December of 2022, we solved a mystery about the 1894 Browns, but it left a large void of more unanswered questions. Initially we believed that the 1895 Mayo Cut Plug baseball card being circulated of Dad Clarkson in a St. Louis jersey was authentic. It was our understanding that baseball cards typically depicted a…
Continuing in the dark era, 1893 is void of photography. Similar to previous seasons, we can only assume the Browns wore a white home uniform with brown St. Louis lettering. We do not know what the home uniform looked like. Other newspaper articles both describe of a blue uniform, leading us to believe it was…
In 1892 we have no photography of the team. There is a white uniform mentioned in the newspapers, but similar to previous seasons, we do not know what that uniform looked like. We assume it said St. Louis on the shirt, but we do not know what those letters looked like. The newspaper articles also…
1891 is just as scarce as 1890. We have no identified photographs from this season, and just a few newspaper accounts to go on. The newspaper accounts do not explicitly say the Browns wore white home uniforms, but do mention the Association had a rule that teams at home must wear white. Once again, we…
1890 began an era of limited photography and accounts. The American Association was beginning to fail, and records of the next handful of seasons have proven very scarce. We have not identified any photos of Browns from 1890. January of 1890, the National League creates a rule for the first time in history that states…
1887 is full of interesting colors for the Browns. We have brown and white stripes, blue, wine colored, solid blue, bright blue, sky-blue, scarlet, and red all discussed in the newspaper accounts. Wine colored is the most subjective of those descriptions. We can only assume they’re referring to a dark red color. Still we find…
We have contradictory newspaper accounts regarding the amount of uniforms in 1886. The first report says the Browns will wear five kits. The next account, only two weeks later, says the Browns will only have two kits. About a month into the season, the newspaper then claims the Browns are getting new sets of uniforms,…
We have newspaper accounts that claim the Browns wore three uniforms in 1885, however photography only shows us one. The newspaper account in question is from 1886, the following season, claiming “the club had three suits.” The Browns after the 1884 season were becoming popular, and won the Association in 1885. Becoming champions of their…
We have two newspaper accounts saying the Browns wore polka dots in 1884. The account from 1884 says they are small polka dots, so we have shown it based on the 1882 New York Metropolitans, see Craig Brown’s research below. History Mysteries:What did those polka dots actually look like? Similar in pattern to the 1882…
In the 1870s and 1880s, people around the country knew the St. Louis team to wear Brown, just the same as Cincinnati to wear Red. Despite this, after Von der Ahe’s club played their first season in 1882, they abandoned brown in favor of red, and declared themselves simply as the St. Louis Club. This…
The 1882 color coding system fairly well documented. In the 19th Century, the National League came up with a system to better identify players on the field. In today’s world we are very accustomed to this type of idea. Every player on the field wears a number and/or name on their uniform. In 1882, they…
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 