The Cardinals have already given fans one uniform win by restoring the navy road caps, and that move could be just the beginning.
After years of complaints, the navy hats are set to return as the team’s primary road cap effective tomorrow and for the rest of the season. The only exception will be Saturdays, when the Cardinals will still wear the powder blue uniforms on the road.
That change was the biggest item in a recent fan uniform survey, but it was far from the only one. The survey also opened the door to a wider conversation about what else the Cardinals might tweak next.
One obvious possibility is moving the powder blues into a home role more often. The Cardinals wore them at home a week before the survey and beat the Reds in convincing fashion. The thought here is simple: the powder blues feel even more at home at Busch Stadium, where the shade of blue can be shown off in front of the home crowd instead of on the road.
If that happened, the Saturday home slot would make a lot of sense. It would also leave room to keep the off-white Saturday jerseys in the mix, just on a different day.
Another idea centers on the Sunday cap. At home on Sundays, the Cardinals wear the navy hat with the red brim and bird on the bat logo rather than the standard “STL” cap. Fans were asked to choose between the two in the survey, and while the regular red hat remains a favorite, the Sunday version has a case of its own.
The red cap still fits with the home whites, the powder blues and the off-whites, so there’s no reason to push it aside completely. But giving the Sunday cap a bigger role would add variety without abandoning the look that has defined so many Cardinals home games.
The off-white jerseys could also be shifted around. Even though they were not part of the survey, the idea here is to make Friday and Saturday alternate uniform days.
The cream-colored set is a strong look, but the City Connects on Fridays are not as appealing in this setup. If the Sunday cap became more than a Sunday-only look, the off-whites could even move to Sundays instead.
Then there’s the bigger swing: replacing the City Connect uniforms with a red alternate jersey. That would be a departure, but the argument is that the City Connect look has lost some of its shine. It still has its place, and it remains a Cardinals uniform, but the idea is to bring back something with more of a throwback feel.
That red jersey already has a bit of a history in the conversation. A previous piece pointed to an old MVP Baseball 2005 trailer featuring Albert Pujols on the cover, with Pujols taking batting practice in a red jersey that simply said “Cardinals.” The writer had one as a kid and wondered why it was only used for batting practice and eventually phased out.
The final piece of the puzzle is the City Connect hat, which the Cardinals could keep even if the uniforms themselves are used less often. The hat, with its different font and departure from the regular “STL” look, is viewed as a strong option and could work well with the regular home whites on certain days. One suggestion is to keep it around for Friday home games.
None of this is set in stone, of course. These are ideas, and there will be plenty of disagreement about which caps and jerseys should rise or fall in the rotation. But the navy hats are back because fans spoke up, and that leaves the door open for more changes if enough people want them.
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