The Cleveland Indians Have Found A New Name
While the NFL's Washington Redskins are still dragging their feet with a name change, MLB's Cleveland Indians didn't waste anytime finding a new name.
Cleveland have carried the Indians name going all the way back to 1915. A name in the past few years that has been considered racist will now receive a facelift going into 2022.
According to WOOD, the Cleveland Indians will now be known as the Cleveland Guardians. This will begin with new logos, team jerseys and all new merchandise at the end of the 2021 season. The club made the announcement via a video posted on Twitter that was narrated by actor and team fan Tom Hanks.
I'm sure there will be some die hard Cleveland fans that will be butt hurt regarding the team switching to the Guardians, but at the end of the day, Cleveland still has a baseball team to route for regardless of their moniker.
The Cleveland management team sifted through close to 1200 names over the past year but once they narrowed things down to a final list, it took just a little more than 30 days for ownership and management to agree on Guardians. With the last half of the name being similar to the original name, it shouldn't take fans to long to get used to it.
The fans that will really be pissed are the ones who build Cleveland Indians man caves to watch the games, with logos, flags and everything Indians all over their sports cave. Some will keep it that way for nostalgia while others will have to start all over.
Good news for the owners of the team, once the new logos are stitched on the jerseys and the merchandise, like always with name and logo changes, the will get a huge surge of swag purchases from fans in Cleveland and those scattered around the world.
There wasn't as much pressure put on the Cleveland ball club to change their name like there was on the NFLs Washington Redskins who have been going by just Washington the past season and a half. After the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis the Cleveland organization said it is time for a change.
Cleveland's team colors will remain the same so if you have pants and shorts to match your original fanwear, those should match the merch that will be launched at the end of the season.
My cousin and her husband are season ticket holders with a lot of memorabilia to go, but they love their team and will continue to support them and probably get new jerseys and move on with the rest of the fans.