The MLB at Rickwood Field game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals will be, in many different ways, a celebration of the Negro Leagues’ integral place in baseball history. One of those tributes will be in the very uniforms the Giants and Cardinals will wear when they take the field at the iconic Birmingham, Alabama, venue on June 20.
The uniforms, which MLB revealed on Wednesday, pay tribute to the Negro League teams that played in the cities the Giants and Cardinals now call home — the San Francisco Sea Lions and St. Louis Stars.
In 1946, their only season as part of the Negro Leagues before becoming an independent barnstorming team, the Sea Lions donned a color scheme of orange and dark navy blue, similar to the Giants’ current color palate.
The biggest difference between the two teams’ uniforms is the large Sea Lion mascot logo on the front left torso, which bears a resemblance to some of the vintage Chicago Cubs bear logos from that era. The jerseys also have “San Francisco” in blue lettering on the chest with orange-and-blue piping down the front of the jersey. The navy blue hats also feature the logo in an orange outline. The Giants first wore throwbacks honoring the Sea Lions in a May 2014 game against the Atlanta Braves and have worn this particular throwback for a game annually each year since 2021 to honor San Francisco’s African-American baseball heritage.
The Cardinals have also worn Stars-themed throwbacks several times before, starting in 1997 and as recently as 2022. These gray throwback jerseys for the designated road team feature navy blue lettering and an inventive piping design that comes together to form a stylish necktie look down the front of the jersey. The “St. Louis” on the front is in navy blue block lettering with a red outline and the navy blue hats say “StL” going across in white font, a dramatic departure from the interlocking “StL” logo on the Cardinals’ hats.
After spending its first 13 years of existence as an independent team (called the St. Louis Giants at the time), the Stars joined the Negro Leagues in 1920 and became one of its greatest dynasties. The Stars won three Negro National League pennants in four seasons from 1928-1931 and developed a rivalry with the famed Kansas City Monarchs on the other side of Missouri. The Stars featured Negro League legends such as Cool Papa Bell, Mule Suttles, Willie Wells and John Henry Lloyd, all of whom are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The game at Rickwood Field will take place at 7 p.m. ET on July 20 on FOX and the FOX Sports App.
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