It is being reported that this week will see the owners finally announce that they have decided to change the name that many people found offensive.
The 2021 season will be the last that a baseball team plays as the “Indians” in Cleveland.
A team source confirmed to cleveland.com that the club will announce this week its intention to play under the same name and uniforms through 2021, but will drop the “Indians” name after the upcoming season. A new name has not yet been decided.
The New York Times was first to report on Sunday that the name change is imminent. The Times also indicated the club is considering moving forward without a replacement name. That move would mirror the situation in Washington, where the city’s NFL franchise dropped its longtime “Redskins” moniker prior to the 2020 season and is playing as the “Washington Football Team” until a new name is chosen.
Coupled with the racist Chief Wahoo mascot, the name symbolized the utter tone deafness of the owners to the use of racist symbols. They fought the change for the longest time, dismissing calls for it while creating myths about how those things actually were meant to honor Native Americans.
Having lived in Cleveland, I know that there are many fans who are passionate about the name and the Wahoo mascot. You can expect them to erupt in fury at the news.
Of course, sensing once again an opportunity to rile up his racist base, Trump had to criticize this move..
Oh no! What is going on? This is not good news, even for “Indians”. Cancel culture at work! https://t.co/d1l0C9g6Pd
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2020
This is not the first time Trump has reacted to a name change. In July, he again used Twitter to criticize the Washington Football Team when it dropped its nickname, complaining of “political correctness.” Trump also defended the former Washington nickname with tweets in 2013.
So while the nation oscillates between anxiety over the rising covid-19 death toll and hope due to the rollout of vaccines, Trump finds time to tweet about a baseball team’s name change. It’s nice to know that his priorities remain intact to the end.
It baffles me that “They” would object to this.
If the team does a name change, all the monkeys will need to buy new t-shirts.
That means more money for “Them”.
chigau -- Marketing and rebranding are the two big “arguments” used to rationalize the retension of racist names.
Cleveland has two perfectly usable names -- Spiders and Naps -- that are already established and known in the city’s history. Selling them to the public won’t be hard at all given how knowing history is such an important part of the game and being a fan.
I grew up near Cleveland listening to Jimmy Duddly on the radio in the summers. I think the baseball team should be called the Browns. It’s a fine old baseball team name and Bill Veeck who once owned the St. Louis Browns had previously owned the team in Cleveland. Yes, there is a football team in Cleveland named the Browns, but they’ve been crap since 1999. And there’s lots of precedent for the baseball and football team in a city having the same name.