January 29, 2018

At long last, the Cleveland Indians give up on their "Chief Wahoo" logo.

The NYT reports:
Citing a goal of diversity and inclusion, [the commissioner of baseball, Rob] Manfred said in a statement provided to The New York Times that the Indians organization “ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate [the acknowledgment by Cleveland’s chairman and chief executive, Paul Dolan] that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course.”...

Although the Indians will stop using the logo on their uniforms, they will not relinquish the trademark and still will be able to profit off sales of merchandise bearing the logo at the stadium and in the Cleveland area. But by maintaining the trademark, the team, with the supervision of M.L.B., retains control of the proliferation of the logo. If it relinquished the trademark, or announced an intention never to claim its protections, another party could legally assume control of it and use the logo in other ways.

45 comments:

Kevin said...

Sad!

DanTheMan said...

>>Although the Indians will stop using the logo on their uniforms, they will not relinquish the trademark and still will be able to profit off sales of merchandise bearing the logo

It's so offensive we can't wear it. But no so offensive we can't continue to make money off of it.

wholelottasplainin said...

How the EFF are diversity and inclusion promoted by EXCLUDING the image of a protected minority?

Krumhorn said...

Just awful. They’ve had that logo on their uniforms for 70 years. The grievance gangsters have gotten another scalp.

- Krumhorn

Bill Peschel said...

Welcome to the limited modified hangout, MLB style.

If a fan wearing a Chief Wahoo T-shirt tries to enter a game, are the Indians going to throw him out?

Henry said...

Long overdue.

JML said...

What Kevin said.

Art in LA said...

This is a slow moving trend, including at the college level. Stanford became the Cardinal, Miami of Ohio became the Redhawks ... Florida Seminoles and the Washington Redskins seemed locked in for a little while longer though. I've always found it ironic that the NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sprezzatura said...

Meanwhile, at the WH: "*****Red Alert*****Red Alert*****Red Alert*****This is not a drill"


[Got get the boss away from Twitter.]

Watchman said...

Would using Elizabeth Warren not work as a replacement for Chief Wahoo?

Wince said...

"When the chief's in town, the party is on!"

Wahoo McDaniel

rhhardin said...

I'm saddened to see them cave.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Old logo was cool. Bet the new one sucks.

rhhardin said...

They're a bunch of squaws over there.

tcrosse said...

What if someone refused to bake a wedding cake with Chief Wahoo on it ?

Rick said...


Cowboy

Stupid argument, are we to believe the Cowboys are racist too? When are people going to realize the craziest leftist in the room saying something is racist doesn't make it so.

rhhardin said...

Cowbogenous and indigenous peoples.

Wilbur said...

EDH:

Wahoo may have been a Grade A wrassler, but he was a true ham and egger with the mike in his face, especially compared to a (subdued) Flair.

Mike Royko wrote a great column once about going to the wrestling matches one night in Chicago. The next day he found his his toilet was backed up, so he called some Polish-named plumber in the phone book, and who should show up at his door but one of the wrestlers from the night before, Bobby Bold Eagle.

MikeD said...

Trump to suggest Fauxahontous for new mascot, so I've heard from "reliable sources".

Meade said...

Indigenapolis, Indigiana.

Meade said...

Wahoosiers.

Birches said...

Now I just want to watch MAJOR LEAGUE.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Chief Wahoo is disturbed that he will go down in history as being fired on the same day as a corrupt FBI bigwig.

gspencer said...

The cartoon character that the Orioles brought back by popular demand along with Chief Wahoo are just part of an ingrained and much-appreciated Americana when baseball players had names like Hammerin’ Hank, Jolting’ Joe, the White Gorilla, Ole Stubblebeard, King Carl, the Hoosier Hammer, the Commerce Comet, the Hoosier Thunderbolt, Georgeous George, the Splendid Splinter, the Sultan of Swat, the Ole Perfessor.

And when prize-fighters, watched by millions, had great names like Smokin' Joe, Sugar Ray, "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, the Brown Bomber, the Cinderella Man, the Hitman, the Italian Stallion, the Manassa Mauler.

Where have all those great names gone? Tom Brady? How white-bread.

Spaceman said...

I'm thinking the Braves will hold fast. Folks in this part of the country would take it very poorly trying to take the tomahawk away. Especially by some g-damn yankee MLB commissioner

Henry said...

@gspencer. Good comment. I just ran across a turn-of-the-century baseball player with a great nickname: Noodles Hahn. Noodles was the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the 20th century.

"Frank George Hahn was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 29, 1879. He acquired his distinctive nickname as a youngster, though he claimed he didn't know why. "All I know is they always called me 'Noodles,'" Hahn said. But a friend claimed to recall the origin quite well. "When Hahn was a boy in Nashville," the man explained, "he always had to carry his father's lunch to him. His father worked in a piano factory, and the lunch was always noodle soup, so the nickname was a natural." There are at least three other variations on the story, however; in one he earned the nickname because he sold his mother's homemade noodle soup, in a second he was simply fond of the soup, and in a third, his brothers gave him the nickname for carrying noodle soup for his grandmother to a poor neighbor."

Noodles Hahn / Society for American Baseball Research

PB said...

It's never good to give in to a heckler's veto. They always want another scalp.

Bob said...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Elliott A said...

When the College of William and Mary removed the feathers from their official"Tribe" logo, the reaction was predictable. Alumni handed out feathers to every person entering the stadium at football games which promptly went in their hats. Something similar may happen among the faithful in Cleveland.

Static Ping said...

I was at an Indians game this year. I actually wanted to buy one of the hats with the "C" on it, but I ended up buying the Wahoo hat more or less because I do not like being told what to do. I plan to offend the right people.

Personally, I think Chief Wahoo is garish and silly without having the cool factor of the Philly Phanatic. I'm not really going to miss him. That said, his removal was not done for any other reason that political correctness. The phrase "diversity and inclusion" is a dead giveaway that the action is done in bad faith and ill intent.

Curious George said...

My first baseball game was "Save the Indians Day" in the very early 60's...I was 4-5 years old I guess. Still remember looking at the field from a tunnel at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Biggest greenest thing I had ever seen. Don't remember if the Tribe won, but we must have saved them because they're still in Cleveland.

Rocky Colovito, Leon Wagner, Max Alvis, Vic Davillio. Sudden Sam McDowell. Some great players...of course all teams had great players because it was before expansion.

We moved to Chicago when I was eight, so 52 years a Cubs fan. But the Indians remain my "American League Team." (It was ironic that the Cubs beat Cleveland for their first Wolrd Series win in over 100 years, and first in my lifetime.) Love Chief Wahoo. I still have a hat.

William said...

There was no malice to it, but Chief Wahoo's day is gone. More an anachronism than a mascot, and who wants to cheer for an anachronism.

William said...

I understand Aziz Ansari is looking for a gig. Maybe he can be the new mascot. Aziz is not an anachronism.

Owen said...

Dartmouth College had an Indian logo for its football team (and generally used in regalia). Historical basis: the school was founded to educate Native Americans as well as aspiring preachers, and it still admits Native Americans at no charge.

But the Sorehead Tribe went on the warpath years ago. Result? No more Dartmouth Indian.

Luckily I bought my tie before the ban. It is now priceless.

Mountain Maven said...

Baseball, following football into wokeness, then brokness.

stlcdr said...

Giving in to simpletons with torches and pitchforks.

rhhardin said...

Imus's Bernard McGuirk reports that in a controversial move, President Trump in tonight's speech will replace the presidential seal with the Chief Wahoo logo.

Robert Cook said...

I'll bet you guys all cursed and resented it when it became unacceptable to use racially stereotypical images of blacks for commercial purposes and in the culture at large.

Poor, poor, pitiful you.

Oso Negro said...

Maybe they will use Elizabeth Warren instead.

deepelemblues said...

Watch in amusement as sales of Chief Wahoo merch soar until the Indians quietly restore it to prominence, perhaps even the jerseys their players actually wear onto the field, once a little time has passed, and the MLB doesn't have the All-Star Game to hang over Cleveland's head.

James Pawlak said...

There was a time when it was appropriate to use the names of American Indian tribes/bands/models for sports teams and symbols of various schools.

Why?

In those times those provided examples of courage and dignity.

Now, the whining and sniveling professional victims who object to such uses are the very model of a most-dangerous and self-destructive “surrender monkey” movement rotting out too much of our nation's collective values.

I must note that the Seminole Nation of Florida expressly and enthusiastically approved of the use of their name by an athletic team.

It might be best for all tribes/bands to have an all adult member, secret-ballot, vote on this issue and that without using such loaded words as “mascot”.

Anonymous said...

Cook: I'll bet you guys all cursed and resented it when it became unacceptable to use racially stereotypical images of blacks for commercial purposes and in the culture at large.

When did that happen?

Far as I can see racially stereotypical images are still used every day for commercial purposes and in the culture at large. Only difference is that the ones used now are compatible with current notions of "acceptable".

Anonymous said...

James Pawlak: There was a time when it was appropriate to use the names of American Indian tribes/bands/models for sports teams and symbols of various schools.

Why?

In those times those provided examples of courage and dignity.


This is so deeply confusing to SJWs that they can't...they can't even.

One, the idea of admiring and respecting an enemy is alien to them. Worse, thinking about whites admiring and respecting the fighting ability and martial valor of American Indians would set off a cognitive panic, what with all the toxic masculinity inherent in those notions. ("But, but, muh peaceful Gaia lovers in harmony with the universe! Muh uniquely violent patriarchal Europeans!") Nor does their ideology admit the historical reality that enemies in a battle for tribal territory can in time become countrymen.

Wonder when they're going to start caterwauling about the use of Indian nation names for military hardware? If they haven't already, that is. (Can we still cry "Geronimo!" without the thought police inquiring?)

Doug said...

Rocky Colovito, Leon Wagner, Max Alvis, Vic Davillio. Sudden Sam McDowell. Some great players...of course all teams had great players because it was before expansion.

Oh, Curious George (at 9:42 p.m.)! You made my heart smile!

ballyfager said...

This makes you appreciate Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins, who has effectively told all of these silly bastards to go fuck themselves.