Long believed to have been a 1927 jersey, this “Worlds Champions” jersey never actually was worn in a major league baseball game.
While it looks like the ’27 jersey, it has a number of differences. The 1927 jersey has pinstripes, but this jersey does not. The 1927 jersey has no piping, but this jersey has red piping on the placket and sleeves. The 1927 jersey says World Champions all in red, but this jersey says Worlds (plural) Champions and in two different colors. The 1927 jersey has the STM style sleeve emblem, while this jersey has an interlocking STL emblem.
So what do we have? Upon researching other jerseys of the era, it became apparent that this jersey was actually a 1926 World Series jersey. With the exception of the Worlds Champions logo, photos from the 1926 World Series shows that this jersey matches exactly.
Even further research and inspection found that someone repurposed the entire set of ’26 Series jerseys in the offseason, and had this “Worlds Champions” logo embroidered on them. The jerseys were used for an offseason tour of exhibition games. This offseason exhibition jersey serves as prototype jersey, perhaps unintentionally, to the 1927 jerseys. Luckily, one survived.
We decided to mock up this jersey paired with the same socks worn in the 1926 World Series.
See below for logos and photos.
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 