Cardinals opted to keep it traditional with new City Connect jerseys

The City Connect jersey era of MLB has been a bit hit or miss. Of course, there's individual style and taste to consider, but there's little doubting the fact that consistency has been an issue.

Some City Connect jerseys have been absolutely fire, while others have struggled to even hit a blooper into the outfield.

There's certainly risk involved for your more traditional teams, and if there's anything traditional and classic in baseball it's the St. Louis Cardinals and their iconic "birds on the bat" decal.

Those birds have been on that bat since 1992 and it's an immediate recognition factor for the Cardinals.

That's why, when thinking of all the creative color schemes and changes the City Connect jerseys have brought to MLB, St. Louis president Bill DeWitt III decided it was best to keep it classic for the Cardinals.

"I mean you can put every symbol you can think of from St. Louis on a jersey, it just won't feel like a Cardinal jersey if it doesn't have the birds on the bat. I just — I couldn't get that out of my mind," he told ESPN. "We've been doing that for 100 years."

DeWitt also didn't want to stray away from the Cardinals' color scheme, which is a decision other clubs have made with these jerseys. No, the Cards stuck with tradition.

"The Cardinals are held to a very high standard with their uniform," DeWitt explained. "And I'm sort of proud of being, I guess somebody that's in a position to keep it that way. So I felt pretty strongly that we wanted this to feel like it was part of our portfolio of uniforms."

The result? Well, you be the judge.