St. Louis Cardinals Alternate

The St. Louis Cardinals are baseballs most recent Champions by defeating the Texas Rangers in a compelling 7-Game series that will be remembered as one of the best played series in recent memory. The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the most storied franchises in the National League which were created in 1882 as the St. Louis Brown Stockings, but switched their name to the Cardinals a decade later in 1892. The Cardinals have been the most successful National League team when involved in the World Series, attending 18 times and winning 11 of them, two out of three in the past decade to cap that.

The St. Louis Cardinals have always been known for their front jersey logo which consists of a baseball bat with two Cardinal birds perched on both ends, which gives them their nickname “redbirds” or “birds on a bat.” The logo which the cardinals are most known for have been it consistently since 1922 which replaced the interlocking “STL” logo on their jersey front. The generic New Era cap for the Cardinals has consisted of the interlocking “STL” logo, but up until the 2000 season the Cardinals introduced a new New Era cap to go along with their traditional red and blue Home and Away caps, and this new alternate utilizes the famous “Bird on a Bat” logo which the team has been famous for since the early 20's.

This Alternate St. Louis Cardinals New Era cap consists of a Navy Blue crown with a Scarlet Red brim, the choices of colours blend the Cardinals traditional Home and Away caps, but utilize the traditional Alternate Bird on a Bat logo. The cap is worn sparingly throughout the season but is worn as a Home Alternate and does not have a specific jersey to go along with it as most Alternate caps do. Going through the years of alternates through major league baseball, many of them are just as forgettable as this cap, and the reason that it may be is because Major League Teams often rely on script for their caps rather than pictorial representations, so this cap is often ignored or even unknown to many fans outside of the St. Louis Cardinals fandom.

The front logo on the cap consists of the St. Louis Cardinals bird which is perched on the center of a baseball bat pointing to the left. This bird on a bat logo is outlined with quite embroidery which helps it to pop out on the cap slightly more than it might without the embroidery, but the detail of the cap is done quite well especially with the use of layered feather-like raised embroidery with the bird. The raised embroidery is not necessarily raised like a Washington Nationals logo, but uses multiple layers of stitching to create the layers instead of stitching over the compressed foam as most caps do. This cap's lineage through the use of embroidery is most likely stemmed from the famous Orioles bird which was introduced in 1989 but was not perfected until 1998.

The rear batterman logo might be thought of as boring to some, but the batterman logo consists of the Red and Navy blue which both compliment the St. Louis Cardinals colours but at the same time compliment the true colours of the batterman logo. The use of the batterman logo as the original and pure MLB batterman logo makes caps look much better but at the same time it can limit their ability to be unique in their own respects, and this conflict has been most noted in the recent incarnations of the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals On-Field Fitteds.

When I was in Fanzz looking at new New Era caps, I had never even thought of purchasing this hat until I looked at it and thought “wow, I want this.” I've been looking at these caps daily for over a decade now, and I don't know what kept me from viewing this cap and allowing it to have the affect on me as it did two months ago. This New Era cap is definitely one of the coolest caps worn in the Major Leagues, but it unfortunately isn't worn that often On-Field due to the fact that it is an Alternate that may be worn once a homestand. The thing that I love most about the cap is the logo itself on the front, I think that embroidery on the logo looks great and the slightly cartoonish bird looks much sharper than the Baltimore Orioles cap which I have criticized over looking way too realistic, almost as if it was clipped out of the Encyclopedia.