Welcome to this website’s off-season sports sartorial content. We are counting down the world’s top 50 most iconic sports uniforms. Only current uniforms apply, we are not including one-off or alternate uniforms. Let’s stick to the basics.

#26

St. Louis Cardinals

I would argue that the St. Louis Cardinals uniforms shouldn’t work. And yet, they work so very well. Two birds!? A full baseball bat? Plus script? The audacity to think about this and actually pull it off has been among the best uniform ideas in MLB history.

If we’re speaking strictly from a point of view of uniform options as a Major League player, I’m not sure the Cardinals can be beat.

For hats, they have their traditional all-red cap, or an all-blue version, or a blue version with red bill featuring a bird and bat. They have their traditional white jersey and road gray, plus a cream alternate with “St. Louis” across the chest and an identical baby blue version. Which other franchise can beat that?

When the franchise began as the St. Louis Browns they rotated through brown, red, light blue, dark blue, and maroon colors. When they were re-named the Cardinals for the 1900 season they were entering their second year with white and red colors.

The iconic birds on a bat jersey first made its debut on the 1922 road uniform, making it over 100 years old! Most of the St. Louis uniforms have featured this layout with some notable exceptions through the years, although it’s been on every standard team baseball uniform since the 1957 season.

The inter-locking “STL” logo made its first appearance on the 1901 ballcap. The club rotated through red, white, and blue hats over the years including a long stretch in navy blue hats at home from 1940 through 1963. From 1964-1991 the team wore exclusively red hats for all uniforms and in 1992 brought back the navy blue hats on the road.

The blue hats with red brims have been a tradition at home on Sunday’s for many years.

Lastly, I wanted to point out the socks for St. Louis because they have continued to have the best sock game in all of baseball. It must be preserved.