Saint Louis Cardinals

Established in 1882, the Saint Louis Cardinals jersey has been easily recognizable. They currently wear white jerseys with the “bat and birds” logo and number on the chest for home games, and gray jerseys with the logo and number for away games. The Saint Louis Cardinals also change hats for home and away games: the home cap is red with the overlapped “STL” logo; the away cap is blue with the same logo. The “Cardinals” is a welcome team name change: they were originally called the “Brown Stockings” and became the “Cardinals” in 1900. Since then, the logo on Saint Louis Cardinals jerseys has taken several different forms. It started very simply as overlapped letters: “S” and “L.” In 1922, they changed that entirely and used an image with two cardinals sitting on a bat. The letter “C” of the word Cardinals wrapped around that bat. Things got simpler in 1927 and the logo was a single cardinal perched on a bat with no text. In 1929, they reverted back to the logo with two birds on the bat and the team name. In 1949, that logo got more complicated: a cloud was added behind the bat and the words “St. Louis” were added to the top of the logo. 1956 saw a simpler logo: a cardinal holding a bat and posing like a batter. Ten years later, they changed to a single cardinal standing on a bat, but this placed on a baseball. The baseball image was ringed with a thick red stripe that contained the white words “St. Louis Cardinals.” In 1998, the Cardinals changed the logo to a single cardinal perched on a bat with the word Cardinals below. Saint Louis Cardinals jerseys, however, still feature the “two birds” logo. The Cardinals have won the World Series ten times, the most recent of which was in 2006 against the Detroit Tigers. Many legendary players have played in a Cardinals jersey, including Rogers Hornsby, Stan “the Man” Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gisbon, Ozzie Smith, Mark McGwire, and Albert Pujols. Mark McQwire brought nationwide attention to the Cardinals during the 1998 season when he broke Roger Maris’ single season home run record. He competed against the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa during this season; the epic home run season was later tarnished by allegations and investigation into steroid use by many major league players. The Saint Louis Cardinals have a strong rivalry against the Chicago Cubs, located on the opposite edge of Illinois. Recently, a rivalry against fellow National League, Central Division Houston Astros has developed. The Cardinals play in Busch Stadium, the third stadium given that title. They made history by winning the World Series in 2006, during the first year in their brand new stadium.