April, 1922: The Birds on the Bat makes its debut
Inspired by a Cardinal alighting on a branch outside her window, Allie May Schmidt designed small paper redbirds perched on brown string and used them as decoration for Branch Rickey's 1921 visit to Ferguson Presbyterian Church. Rickey, whose team was known for the cardinal color not the bird, loved the motif and commissioned Schmidt's father to turn it into the logo we know today.