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Cleveland Indians baseball team to be renamed
slimies
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just found out the Indians are no longer to be called the Indians.. the logo and name will be dropped but no new name has been picked yet .
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Cleveland Baseball Team.......or..........Spiders?
Can we call them the “Tribe” still or is that offensive 🙄
WE will continue to call them the Cleveland Indians and the Tribe while WE wear hats, shirts and other garb adorned with Chief Wahoo.
Sigh, another one bites the dust.
With the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame there, i could imagine something like the Cleveland Rockers.
there is a mixture of fact and fiction diverging at the basis for the name Cleveland Indians.
the focal point is a Native American man from the Penobscot Nation named Louis Sockalexis. the fact is that this man existed and initially played for the Cleveland Spiders: one of his Teammates was none other than Cy Young(I think we all know who he is!!). the fiction, disputed by some, is that the Team name "Indians" came about in honor of Louis Sockalexis.
here again, fact and fiction collide. fact: Sockalexis played for the Spiders from 1897-1899 and during that time the moniker "Indians" was used by the press in reference to the Cleveland Spiders. fiction: the Team was named in honor of him, but that name didn't take hold officially until 1915.
what I think would be helpful is some serious, in depth and indisputable research via news clipping and any verifiable records from that era to determine the legitimacy of the contention that the name was chosen to honor a man and not to demean any race of people. if that is the truth of it, and I believe it is, then the name should stay and the detractors sent packing. if that is fictional Legend, then make the change.
just do one or the other for the right reason.
it can be hard to shake free of prejudice and racism. here in Cleveland we face that with two Teams, the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns. there are actually people who think the Browns are a slander to African Americans and should be changed. they are perplexed when it's explained to them the the founder of the Team was Paul Brown and that the Team carries his name.
I am greatly saddened by this news. I guess many people who do not follow sports dont know the origin of the nickname ¨Indians¨
Clevelands team was named the spiders, then the Naps for Nap Lajoie. when he left the team they wanted a new nickname. they decided to HONOR a former player, Louis Sockalexis. Sockalexis is generally figured to be the first native american to play MLB. Louis had great raw talent: was extremely fast and had an amazing arm in the outfield.
He had a brief 3 year career. He also faced terrible racist slurs and abuse at the hand of some fans and even sportswriters. He became an alcoholic and was unable to continue playing at an MLB level. In my opinion, he was Jackie Robinson 50 years before Jackie.
My small connection to Sockalexis is that he was born and grew up only a few towns over from mine. He was a member of the Penobscot tribe and lived on the reservation. He is still spoken of highly locally 100 years after his death.
I hope any new name will find a way to continue honoring Louis Sockalexis.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
primary source evidence is very hard to come by on this topic. Joe Posnanski references a 1897 the sporting life article that spoke of the cleveland spiders being commonly called the Indians during this time period and after.
¨There is no feature of the signing of Sockalexis,” wrote The Sporting Life, “more gratifying than the fact that his presence on the team will result in relegating to obscurity the title of ‘Spiders’ by which the team has been handicapped for several seasons, to give place to the more significant name, ‘Indians.’¨
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I'm sure many Indians fans will switch to another team. Perhaps the Reds, unless they decide to change their name too. Ugh
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
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The silliness continues. I assume the 'Braves' will be next?
Dave
I guess after they are done changing baseball names , the hockey and footballs teams will be next .. ( Chiefs , blackhawks , ) not sure where it will end.
The Reds didn't officially change their name but back in the days of the cold war they were always referred to as the Redlegs.
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Ralph
a member of the sockalexis family was on the local sports talk radio show yesterday afternoon. the consensus on the reservation was one of disagreement over the cleveland baseball teams decision to change names. the man on the show was a cousin to Louis and he relayed a story about how when Jacobs field opened in 1994, the Indians invited he and his father down to attend the first game in the owners box and what an honor it was.
His sentiment was that of sadness over what surely will be the loss of his ancestors legacy. the team name kept Louis´ name alive. but as time passess, the brief career of the first Native American to play MLB will be slowly forgotten.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
His sentiment was that of sadness over what surely will be the loss of his ancestors legacy. the team name kept Louis´ name alive. but as time passes, the brief career of the first Native American to play MLB will be slowly forgotten.
this is why there needs to be a concerted effort to discern exactly why the name "Indians" was adopted in 1915. there seems to be some evidence, actual and anecdotal, that it was indeed to honor Louis Sockalexis. there is also a very strong push, always has been as expressed in Cleveland area media, to give legitimacy to the "folklore" aspect of the name.
it's easy to prove, or should be, since virtually all Newspapers are archived. to me, this is an aspect of Revisionist History that is counter-productive. Native Americans seek to remove something perceived as an insult which was originally intended to be an Honor.
Sorry to be indifferent, but I think losing Corey Kluber to injuries is a far worse thing to happen to Cleveland than changing their name.
there is that ¨the sporting life¨ article that Posnanski quoted? I am not sure how to get an image of the actual article, but isnt that some primary source evidence that the team was at least colloquially called the indians at the end of the 19th century because Sockalexis was on the team? if that is the case, I dont see why current ownership cannot connect that to the current nickname.
the Native Americans in my neck of the woods, the actual tribe of which Sockalexis was a member, are very much in favor of keeping the nickname. They see it as an honor.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
there is a story of a newspaper contest to name the team, but there is no evidence that ever happened. from what I have heard, the owner and a couple of team administrators met privately to decide. there they arrived at the official nickname of Indians. it makes sense as they were trying to distance the name Naps, and previous to Naps, Indians was the commonly used term even though Spiders was the official name.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Is Begonias still up for grabs? This could get really dicey. The Dodgers are named after crime, Padres could be viewed as non-inclusive, Brewers glorify a vice, and don't get me started on the Braves for Pete's sake!
Wait 'til this hits college sports with full force! My Sooners won't stand a chance!!!!!
Cleveland Crackers has a nice ring to it.
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Ralph
Football - Cleveland Clowns
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ignore list -Basebal21
Everybody will eventually get used to whatever new name they choose. In my lifetime, it took me a while each time, but I've been able to change in referring to the Oakland / LA / Oakland / Las Vegas Raiders.
Easy formula for all leagues:
City + Sport + "Team" = New Name
This should work until every city/state name offends someone.
But what would New York do with two "New York" teams with the same name?
Sports fans from New York are confused enough as it is.
No city is allowed more than one team of the same sport, problem solved. One has to move to Boise.
Perhaps almost every noun or verb in the English language could be twisted in some sort of manner by someone in a slang way of some sort which might offend somebody out there. I imagine that taking almost any of these words and googling it into a slang connotation could come up with something referencing sexual or deviant behavior.
Any team named after an animal could be construed by some snowflake as a form of animal rights abuse or the animal itself eats other animals or even humans such as lions and tigers and bears.
It goes on and on and on.
Frankly, those i've seen out there who partake in this nonsense, usually aren't sports fans to begin with, and certainly don't normally if ever partake in great hobbies such as coin and card collecting. They seem to prefer to wreck things rather than collect things. So my viewpoint is to yell with them.
The Boise Football Team - has a nice ring to it.
I don't think New York fans would miss their former "Jets" team very much.
And we get rid of the silly NY Giants name that doesn't even get the state correct, they become the East Rutherford Football Team.
True.
I will give the NFL Teams of New York State credit for at least staying still for a little while. the Rams and Raiders can't seem to decide where they want to be. what would make me happy in a few years when the Raiders decide they want to leave Las Vegas?? EVERYONE EVERYWHERE tells them they don't want them. the "Al Davis pissing contest with Pete Rozell and the NFL" set a really bad trend in motion.
Due to the recent sports name changes, I have decided to sell my entire sports card collection. I never want to see a Redskins or Indians card again. Pro sports has gotten too political for me. So I'm done with this once great hobby.
Terry Bradshaw was AMAZING!!
Ignore list -Basebal21
Thank you @keets and @craig44 for bringing some really detailed and interesting information on this topic.