1900 Cardinals

The 1900 team wore similar uniforms uniforms from the previous season, but with a laced shirt and louder bubblier lettering. The ST. LOUIS lettering from 1899 was considerably smaller than the lettering in 1900.

It was also this season that we begin seeing the word Cardinals in the newspapers. Nicknames of teams often came about based on the color the team wore. ie, Browns, Reds, Red Sox, White Stockings, etc. Carrying over from the previous season, we have newspaper accounts of the media still referring to the team as Red Caps. But as the season continued, and as the legend goes, affirmed in a 1903 newspaper article with Patsy Donovan, sportswriter Willie McHale overheard a lady remark, “Oh! isn’t that just the loveliest shade of Cardinal!” After hearing this, McHale began referring to the team as the Cardinals in his column in the St. Louis Republic. What isn’t talked about in the famous legend, is Willie McHale apparently heard this lady when the team was on the road in Chicago, by a local Chicago woman. The origins of the Cardinals name, unfortunately, can be traced to our longtime rival city. Nonetheless, the nickname grew in popularity amongst fans and club owners. But it is important to note, the name referred to color before it referred to the bird.

The interview with Patsy Donovan in 1903 is unfortunately a second hand account, and the only real record we have of this legend. Legends and stories say the first claim was made on April 15, 1899, but we can not find a record of this. We have no accounts from Willie McHale, because he unfortunately died in 1901 at age 23.

Newspaper Accounts

St. Lous Republic: Arpil 3, 1900
GOOD PRACTICE FOR MR. TEBEAU’S TEAM.
Rochester Athletes Were Too Stiff and Sore to Give the Cardinals an Argument.

St. Louis Post Dispatch: April 19, 1900
Their new suits were the same as their garb of ’99, white with red trimmings, except that the stockings, belt and cap seemed more of a cardinal hue. 

St. Louis Post Dispatch: May 4, 1900
The Red Caps Getting in Form Again and Playing the Right Sort of Baseball.
The second game of the St. Louis series with the Pittsburg Pirates at the Smokey City was captured in easy fashion by the Cardinals on Thursday afternoon.
The final score was 9 to 2.
Burt Jones, the left-handed pitcher of the “Red Caps,” was in fine fettle and he kept the Pittsburgs guessing throughout the game. Jones’ control was excellent. He did not give a free pass to first, or make any other kind of a pitching error. He had great speed and altogether his twirling was magnificent.
“Rube” Waddell made his second appearance on the home grounds for Pittsburg and the touted wonder proved an easy mark the “Red Caps.”
The St. Louisan batted his assortment of speed and curves at will, and whenever a hit was needed it was forthcoming. Mike Donlin was the only “Red Cap” that could …………………ben’s delivery, and as a consequence Mike fanned the atmosphere three out of the five times he faced the eccentric Pirate.
Donlin managed to secure a single, however, his fourth time up. In the end the Californian acquitted himself presentably, accepting the three changes sent his way in good style. 

St. Louis Post Dispatch: May 9, 1900
The second game played by the Cincinnati and St. Louis Clubs at League Park during the present series was won by the Red Caps Tuesday afternoon by the score of 9 to 7.
The game was a good one from a St. Louis hitting standpoint, has the Red Caps connected safely with the sphere with a vengeance throughout the game and succeeded in driving newtons, who began the twirling for Cincinnati, off the rubber in the second inning.
Scott succeeded him and he was also easily found at frequent intervals by the home team.
Gus Weyhing, the old warhorse bat artist of the St. Louis club, occupied the rubber for his team, and he was the Red Cap most responsible for their victory. He was in good form, though a trifle wild, and held his opponent safe throughout the contest. He was as cool as the proverbial cucumber went in a tight place, and it was his self possession, combined with his pitching and the good fielding behind him, that won the game.

St. Louis Post Dispatch: May 15, 1900
THE CHAMPIONS WON
BROOKLYN TAKES THIRD GAME OF FIRST ST. LOUIS SERIES.
The third game of the Brooklyn series was played Monday afternoon at League Park and the champions won by the score of 3 to 2.
Jack Powell pitched for the Red Caps and “Wild Bill” Kennedy for the Superbas.

The Pittsburgh Press: April 10, 1903
Windy City Lass Named Cardinals
Baseball Writer, Now Dead, Picked Up Nickname From the Lips of a Chicago Girl
St. Louis, April 10. — “How did the Cardinals get their appropriate name?” was asked of manager Donovan by an ardent “fan” after Sunday’s great contest.
“A Chicago girl named them,” was Donovan’s surprising reply.
“Yes,” continued “Patsy,”   “a Windy City lass discovered the cognomen, unconsciously, and ‘Billy’ McHale, then a well-known baseball writer, and at the time official score of the team, was the first to publish it.
“ ‘Billy,’ poor boy, is dead now, but the name that he picked up from the lips of the Chicago girl will live for many a day. McHale accompanied the team to Chicago about the middle of the season in 1900 and sat in the press box during the first game of the series.
“Sitting directly behind him was a young girl, who is keen visage took in everything of interest in the park. Shortly after McHale took his seat, ‘Patsy’ Tebeau and his former Cleveland Spiders trotted out on the grounds.
“Attired in clean gray traveling suits, adorned with bright red trimmings, they presented a pretty picture as they crossed the field.
“nor did the picture escape the bewitching orbits of the Chicago miss, who clapped her hands enthusiastically and exclaimed to her companion: ‘Oh! is’nt that just the loveliest shade of Cardinal!’
“McHale caught the exclamation and a moment later had flashed over the wires to St. Louis in his introduction of the game the intelligence that the ‘Cardinals’ were confident of victory.
“The name was what the sporting scribes and the ‘fans’ had been searching for. A dozen different sobriquets had been applied to the team, but it remained for a Chicago girl to unconsciously select the one that stuck.”

St. Louis Republic: August 27, 1900
CARDINALS FINALLY BEAT CALLAHAN.
The most pleasing feature of the game is that the Cardinals finally managed to defeat Chicago with Jimmy Callahan opposed to them on the rubber. Callahan has always been effective against St. Louis. In fact, he was looked upon as a hoodoo by the local crowd. No matter how hard he was hit he always managed to scratch his way out at the finish. He has been very lucky against St. Louis, but then Jimmy is a first-class pitcher, and good men are always considered a favorite of the Goddess of Fortune.
Yesterday James had no chance to get away with the game. But even at that he held the score down to a small figure, considering the number of safe hits that were made off his delivery. The fourteen hits made by the Cardinals were scattered throughout the game, and whenever the Hitites commenced to slug. Callahan settled down and handed up things that were mysterious, to say the least. 

Team Colors

Cardinals red – PMS 200