1929 Cardinals

In 1929, Sainz maintained the uniform contract and would produce the Cardinals uniforms for just one season. We think the same Birds on the Bat template from the ’28 Series was used for the 1929 jerseys, however the birds were rendered rounder and fatter.

The road jersey was seemingly the same design as well, but the birds were rendered sleeker and slimmer, more similar to the ’28 Series Birds. Photographic records also show the road jersey Birds on the Bat having darker beaks. We have no physical sample of the road jersey, so we’re relying on photographs. The only photography from this season was in black and white, but consistently the road birds show darker beaks than the home birds. This has lead us to think the birds had red beaks. We are still confused as to why the road jersey would have red beaks and the home jerseys would have yellow beaks. The Cardinals own a physical sample of a 1929 home jersey displayed in their museum, it has yellow beaks.

The familiar STM (with lower positioned T) sleeve emblem returned this season on the home jerseys. However the rendering of this logo was very poor, and cut with much less detail than previous seasons. We have redrawn this logo with less details based on the physical sample.

Team Colors

Cardinals Red – PMS 200

Vintage Yellow – PMS 1225

Sainz Uniform Manufacturer

Jose Maria Sainz was born in San Dimas, Mexico in 1889 and was well educated as a youth. He and a friend journeyed north in 1908 from the State of Durango to St. Louis, MO by train to seek university schooling. They both fell upon hard economic times and could not pay for their schooling and became homeless and destitute. Jose worked odd jobs as a day laborer and eventually found steady work as a furnace room keeper at Rawlings Sporting Goods. He slept in the furnace room as well. He married in 1914 and had saved enough money to rent an apartment. He was constantly ridiculed at Rawlings for his Mexican heritage and had many fights with other employees. At his wife’s urging, he quit Rawlings in 1916 and started work at Robert-Johnson-Rand, a shoe manufacturer. The machinery there was quite different from Rawlings and Jose struggled mightily to avoid being fired for costly mistakes. Disheartened, Jose applied for a job as an apprentice at Commonwealth Steel Co. as a machinist. He found a measure of success there and rose to foreman and Steel Workers Union representative. However, when the Armistice was signed ending WWI in 1918, Commonwealth started to lay off employees and Jose was one of the unfortunate ones. He had saved enough money to enter business school in 1919, and upon graduating, went back to work at RJR Shoe Co. with the idea of expanding their market into the Hispanic community. The job was so low paying however that in 1922 he jumped at the chance when Rawlings offered him a similar job at double the pay. He was to be an outside sales representative to the Hispanic community in the U.S. and Mexico. He was also to design Rawlings catalogs and literature in Spanish. He traveled extensively in Mexico and was highly successful. He was on a management track at Rawlings and his future looked bright but his marriage was disintegrating. Jose took offense to a comment by an executive at Rawlings regarding his personal life and punches were thrown. Jose was immediately fired. He was nothing if not resilient and took this as an opportunity to start his own company, J.M. Sainz & Co. He designed the crest of his trademark logo incorporating the words, “The Sunshine Line.” This was in tribute to the Sunshine Special, the Missouri Pacific Railway train he used when coming north in 1908. He contracted with three companies, RJR Shoe Co., Mexican American Hat Co. and oddly enough Rawlings (personal grievances were set aside for the sake of business). Marketed under the J.M. Sainz Brand, Jose left for Mexico in 1923 to sell his goods to an eager populace. He became wealthy and bought huge plots of land in Mexico. He met and interacted with political figures and gained influential contracts. Disaster struck in 1926 when a large shipment from Rawlings turned out to be faulty. Jose lost some of his reputation in Mexico because of this and really raised his ire when Rawlings would not settle up with the damaged merchandise. Jose won a lawsuit against Rawlings in court for real and punitive damages. At this point, Jose decided to teach Rawlings a lesson and in 1927 he leased a factory on Washington Street in St. Louis and hired away many Rawlings employees and went head to head against the larger company. He sought the friendship of Judge Landis, the Baseball Commissioner and Sam Breadon, the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. Jose was able to obtain some contracts with the St. Louis club and traveled extensively in the Midwest marketing his sporting goods. In the end, he was destined for failure against the bigger company and J.M. Sainz & Co. closed in 1931. Because of his extensive land holdings in Mexico, Jose was able to retire to the good life down south and raised horses.