Cleveland Indians fans should embrace a name change, not pitch a fit about it

Over the holiday weekend, the pressure began to mount for the Washington Redskins to change their team name. In the climate we’re currently in, with race relations in the spotlight, it seems like a fitting time to come up with something better for a National Football League team nickname.

What I wasn’t expecting was for the Cleveland Indians, who fought tooth and nail for years to save their logo that consisted of a cartoon caricature of a Native American before finally letting it go last year, to announce that they’re ready to take the leap to rename their franchise. Apparently their fans weren’t, either, because their fans lost their minds about the subject on social media, threatening to return their season tickets if the team “caved in” and renamed it’s team. It’s seems that people felt showing Chief Wahoo the door was enough of a gesture. But it wouldn’t surprise me if operators of the team were eager to move on. How can you market a team that basically can’t have a logo depicting its name? They surely recognize their tone deaf nickname is holding them back and this is a chance for an exciting, fresh start.

The fact that their “fans” are freaking out about the announcement is pathetic.

First, how bold of them to return their tickets for a season in which they probably weren’t going to be able to go to games in the first place. Second, I call bull. If the St. Louis Cardinals suddenly announced that they were changing their name back to the St. Louis Perfectos, I might scratch my head about the decision. But I’m not going to turn my back on the team I grew up on. If the name of the club is that important, I don’t think you were ever that much of a fan to begin with. I absolutely hate the Cardinals’ powder blue alternate uniforms. I think they’re embarrassing, to say the least. But am I going to refuse to watch the games because I didn’t get my way? Hardly.

The fact of the matter is that teams have historically changed their uniforms — and their names — to suit the times. Fashions come and go, trends change and priorities are altered. As I just mentioned, the Cardinals we’re always the Cardinals. They were the Browns, the Brown Stockings and the Perfectos before they settled on their current moniker, largely because they wanted to change the team colors. While the Redbirds of the late 1890s couldn’t wait to get away from being tied to the color brown, the San Diego Padres of today can’t seem to stay away from it, ditching their Navy primary color for their 1970s fast food worker looking duds. The Dodgers weren’t always the Dodgers. They previously were the Bridegrooms, Robins and Superbas and then Trolley Dodgers before they shortened their name to the Dodgers. The trolleys they dodged were in Brooklyn and have nothing to do with their home in Los Angeles. It’s surprising they didn’t change their name when they moved. The Cincinnati Reds altered their name with the times, during the communist scare of the 1950s, they decided to find a name that sounded less sympathetic to the Soviets and were called the Red Legs and Red Stockings before changing their nickname back later. The Yankees used to be called the Highlanders, the Tampa Bay Rays dropped Devil from their name to make a portion of their fan base happy.

In fact, the Indians weren’t always the Indians. They were the Blues, Forest Citys, Naps and Spiders over their history before settling on their current name in 1915. It seems the Spiders is the favorite as a new moniker, a name that has some links to the Cardinals and their history.

The Spiders, who existed from 1887-99, were owned by Frank and Stanley Robison and competed in the National League. When the siblings purchased a second NL club — in St. Louis — they basically sent all their top players to the new club to build a powerhouse while leaving their original franchise in dire straits. With Cy Young, Jesse “The Crab” Burkett and others added to the the team then known as the Perfectos, the Spiders were reduced to being one of the weakest teams in major league history, compiling a 20-134 record. Not much later, the franchise was folded.

The former Cleveland team had a snazzy logo with a C that sprouted eight legs to match their name, something that would be a welcome change from The Tribe’s cartoon image of a Native American had to be retired. Now the team only has a letter for a logo, a circumstance unlikely to change as long as the team is named the Indians. It’s ironic that I’m told to embrace the change of the designated hitter in the National League, pitch clocks, relief pitcher rules and other changes by fellow fans. But they can’t accept a tiny change that has absolutely nothing to do with the way the game is played on the field. Give me the hit and run, pitchers batting and managerial chess games that we used to have and you can call the Cardinals whatever you want.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.