A friend of mine asked me the other day what I thought about my baseball team’s name and mascot. She would be referring to The Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo.

Chief Wahoo

I have been a tribe fan all of my life. I can’t imgine calling my team anything but the Indians. But, both the Chief and the team name have got to go. If Detroit up and changed it’s name to the Detroit Negroes and sewed a sambo mascot to their hats we would be up in arms - and by we I mean nearly everybody.

Sambo

We weren’t always the Indians by the way. From 1901 to 1914, the team had three different names: the Cleveland Blues, the Cleveland Bronchos and the Cleveland Naps. Naps was derived from a former player named Napoleon Lajoie. When Lajoie was traded to Philly, the team’s name was changed to the Indians in response to a local newspaper contest.

In 1995, the Indians released a press release explaining that:

“The Cleveland Indians organization is very aware of the sensitivities involved in this issue. We have gone to great lengths to respect those sensitivities. In no way do we intend to demean any group, especially one as pround as Native Americans. The logo is simply a caricature that has enjoyed decades of fan appeal in the Northeast Ohio area…”

Last time I checked, a caricature was “a representation in which the subject’s distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.”

So essentially the ball club was saying, “We don’t mean to demean. We are laughing with you, not at you.”

How on earth can anybody seriously defend this uniform anymore?

I advocate returning to the Cleveland Blues. If the show fits… wear it.