Cards’ opening day uniforms have golden touch

The St. Louis Cardinals are getting fancy during their home-opening weekend at Busch Stadium. Not only will the organization pass out championship rings from the 2011 World Series on April 14 (fans will receive a replica), but the club also will wear special gold-trimmed jerseys and caps. The Cards also will wear the gold the day before for their home opener.

What's more, that turncoat Albert Pujols won't get to wear the fancy uniform. He'll be out of town, of course, playing with the Los Angeles Angels in non-gold gear. Even better: The Cardinals are facing their arch rivals, the Chicago Cubs. So they'll get to flaunt their most recent World Series title in front of a team that might as well have none.

And they'll be doing it in gold. Because we as a country love gold!

This Fashion Ump, however, can't give this one a free pass to first.

You might recall the San Francisco Giants going for the gold a season ago with their opening day uniforms. Uniwatch says the gimmick goes back to 2005, when the Red Sox wore gold for their ceremony then switched back to regular. I don't get it. It looks OK, because gold usually looks good — it's just not Cardinals colors. Why mess with your colors? Especially when you have good colors.

And adding gold just seems like something they'd do in England, or the Vatican. This isn't England or the Vatican, is it? We're not royal here (no Kansas City pun intended). We're certainly not holy. We're just folks. And we wear what we brought. The Cardinals brought red and white to the World Series and that's what they should wear on opening day.

Meanwhile, the price of gold probably just went up.

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