"... moving away from a moniker that has long been criticized as racist, three people familiar with the decision said Sunday.
The move follows a decision by the Washington Football Team of the N.F.L. in July to stop using a name long considered a racial slur, and is part of a larger national conversation about race that magnified this year amid protests of systemic racism and police violence.... One option that the team is considering, two of the people said, is moving forward without a replacement name — similar to how the Washington Football Team proceeded — then coming up with a new name in consultation with the public."... Other professional sports teams, including the Atlanta Braves, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Chicago Blackhawks, have said in recent months that they have no plans to change their names... The [Indians] club has said that the name was originally intended to honor a former player, Louis Sockalexis, who played for the Cleveland Spiders, a major league club, in the 19th century and was a member of the Penobscot Nation. Some have suggested that Cleveland adopt the name Spiders as a replacement."
Trump tweeted" "Oh no! What is going on? This is not good news, even for 'Indians.' Cancel culture at work!"
Personally, I think all baseball teams should be named after a type of animal, preferably one that you can picture holding a baseball bat or attempting to play baseball in a silly fanciful manner. But the only team that meets my standard is the Cubs. Maybe the Tigers. The best trend actually represented by the existing name is birds — Cardinals, Orioles, Blue Jays. So I recommend another bird. Maybe Crows — for the alliteration and because there are crows in Ohio. But Spiders is perfectly good. It's got some Cleveland tradition, it might scare the opposition, and it's an animal. It's a type of animal not currently represented among
the major league team names, but it would provide company for the Diamondbacks, which are currently the only team that's named after a type of animal that isn't represented by any other team. Anyway, don't name a team after a type of human being. That was never a good idea. And don't name a team after items of clothing. That's just stupid.
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Bats/
Fruit Bats
Wombats
Vampire Bats
Take a swing at one.
I think we need to change these state and town names also that are cultural appropriation.
Districts 1-50
What's wrong with naming teams after people?
For instance professions, like brewers, meat packers, oil rig workers, ethnic groups (Canadiens, Canucks, Patriots, Allouets) and even mythology (Argonauts). A local HS team is called the Beet Diggers.
The Canadian Football League has some great names. In addition to Argonauts and Allouets, there are the Rough Riders and Stampeders. These make the Lions and Tiger Cats sound lame.
At some point this season I began referring to the DC team as the Washington Pigskins. In that vein, I suggest for Cleveland the Horsehides.
Ya know, the city was founded as a major shipping port on Lake Erie, so the team could make a wink, wink case for the Cleveland Steamers.
Curious George: 'I can still remember walking through the tunnel into the bright sunshine and all that green grass.'
It was glorious, wasn't it? I walked through that tunnel with my Dad, except it was Shea Stadium in New York. Bright sunshine, and all that green grass.
"The best trend actually represented by the existing name is birds". I heard a caller on sports radio today suggest "Cleveland Swallows".
Mexico: Saltillo Serape Makers
Puerto Rico: Santurce Crabbers
Cuba (old): Havana Sugar Kings
I heard a caller on sports radio today suggest "Cleveland Swallows".
Well, they don't bring babies, which is probably why the Ho has none.
I wonder if any of the 20 Twitter complainers were actually fans?
We name sports teams after Native Americans to honor them. All these attacks on "Redskins" "Braves" "Chiefs" team names are NOT coming from Native Americans who don't care or support them. Its coming from Leftists.
But, when all is said and done, who cares? They aren't the Washington redskins, they're the Dan Snyder Football team. Pro teams are owned by billionaires who move them to make more $$$ and change their names to make more $$$. Al Davis moved the Raiders to LA, then back to Oakland, and its now in Las Vegas. He didn't give a fuck about "The fans". Pro Sports is a business and if you actually CARE about them, you're a fool, because they sure as hell don't care about YOU.
This is just more "Cancel Culture", Left-wing censorship of what we say and do. You can't talk about Biden getting elected through vote fraud on Facebook or Youtube. That's what's important - not a baseball team.
Phew! Finally, my brown heritage of real Indian is disassociated from the cess pool
Well, it's rare to say this about an Althouse post, but in this case we can say:
It's obvious that this post was written by a girl.
And honestly, if the Indians don't rename themselves the Redskins, that is going to be a tragically wasted opportunity.
Oh I so needed a few laughs everyone - such fun suggestions!
I kind of like the Washington Woke Whiners and the Cleveland Climate Change Cons
Putting a team together. For a name, thinking about 'Brothers in the Blood'. We got Mexicans, we got Africans, we got White guys, we got Indian guys, Cubans of course. We have God's assembled men.
Get your team together. We're already playin'. Where you at?
Buzzards. Just south of Cleveland is Hinckley where the buzzards return every spring.
Lots of other people have pointed out the other team names that are named after groups of people, like Vikings, Fighting Irish, Spartans etc. But what they haven't pointed out are the names that don't exist, like the San Franciso Chinamen, The San Antonio Wetbacks, The Brooklyn Shifty Jews, or The Atlanta Spooks. All these are lacking. It is almost as if people chose team names as a point of pride and admiration. If I heard of a some soccer team in South East Asia adopting, honestly, a name of The Americans, I would laugh about it but would have no problem. People who have a problem need to be loaded onto catapults and launched into the ocean. If they are mouthy enough we should chum the waters where they are expected to land.
Still liking The Aristocrats.., classy!
Cleveland Warrens. Think about it.
The game itself was brought here by the white oppressor. It needs to be banned in totality.
When men conquer other men, they elevate the best that those other men were. It's a form of respect. Redskins. Chiefs. It's an honor.
Women wake up in the morning in one tribe, and go to sleep in a conquering tribe.
This is the way it is here. If you're a Yin and don't like it...be patient. Come back as Yang, next time, and Rip it up. Respect those you conquer. That's the rule.
I would go with Hippos as the new name. It's hard to use the whole name of the animal, since people (meaning I) are unsure whether it would be the Hippopotamuses or the Hippopotami (spellcheck seems to prefer the former). My high school geometry teacher told a joke (this was well before we knew that we weren't supposed to use the word "squaw"). It seems that there was an Indian chief with three wives, two of whom were young, slender, and beautiful, and an older wife, who had grown obese with the passage of years. One day, somebody presented the chief with the hide of a hippopotamus, which was quite valuable, since hippos were rare in that part of North America. This created a stir in the tribe, since people were interested in which of the three wives would have the privilege of sitting on the hippo hide. When the chief invited guests into his tent, they were shocked to see the obese wife sitting in the place of honor. When the chief saw their surprise, he said to his guests, "Haven't you ever heard that the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sum of the squaws on the other two hides?"
See, I told them to replace Chief Wahoo with a guy wearing a turban and launch a marketing campaign in Mumbai.
Cleveland Cows
Regardless of the new team name, they should still go all out with a "last game as Indians" bash. Revise the great "ten cent beer night" with "ten cent firewater night," have everyone show up in headdresses, and blast Wig Wam Bam by Sweet over the PA. At the end of the game crowd can tear the place apart with the free tomahawk they gave away at the gate.
The move to eliminate Native Americans from popular culture continues apace. We really don't use things we hate or disrespect as product names or team mascots. This whole thing is deranged. Only the Seminole Indians have stepped up to protect their place in popular culture as the spirit of Florida State University. SAD.
In the very early days of professional baseball, there was a Baltimore Canaries. I guess that's better than the Baltimore Rats.
I have been an Indians fan for 62 years, but I cut them out of my life on Opening Day, 2020, when I saw they had stenciled "BLM" on the back of the pitcher's mound
The Indians have been overachieving for several years. With one of the smallest payrolls in the league, they have made the playoffs pretty often. The front office may be the best in the business, and Terry Francona is one of the best managers of all time.
One way the Indians have been able to do this is by making sure all players on the team feel like they belong and are respected. Harmony in the clubhouse is a big deal. None of the star players of recent years is a prima donna, at least not in public. The team suspended two important starters, Clevinger and Plesac, for violating Covid-19 protocols. This wasn't done for political correctness, but rather because the pitchers had endangered their teammates. Other players on the team supported the move. Management risked losing some games to preserve team harmony. This is part of how you overachieve with a low payroll.
The team name change is in keeping with this attitude. MLB players are young men, not all of them terribly sophisticated, and a very diverse group. I have no doubt that Indians management sounded out many of the players before they decided to change the name. While many of the fans don't like the name change, they will be even less happy if disharmony in the clubhouse leads to losing seasons.
The team has enough problems already. With the free-agency loss of Hernandez and the expected trade of Lindor, they need two middle infielders and they desperately need some power in the outfield. If they can pull off a winning 2021 season, all will be forgiven.
Perhaps professional sports teams named after Native Americans should keep their name, but prepend the word "bloodthirsty" to the name, to explicitly link their team name not to all Indians and Redskins, but only "Bloodthirsty Indians" or "Bloodthirsty Redskins."
Who is going to stand up and say "I represent bloodthirsty Indians and that name offends me!"
The Cleveland Pit Bulls, or just the Cleveland Curs. That should trigger a new group of complainers.
They're on the war path and they're taking scalps...
We need to cancel Oklahoma. It means Red Man from the original Choctaw language.
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