You can count former President Donald J. Trump among those who aren’t fans of the big announcement that Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians have canceled their historic nickname.
Trump blasted the team’s announcement that the team will be known as the Cleveland Guardians going forward, the latest victim of the “woke” purge of professional sports that has already claimed the scalp of the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
In a statement released after the name change was made official, Trump blasted the move as “such a disgrace,” he added, “The people of Cleveland cannot be thrilled and I, as a FORMER baseball fan, cannot believe things such as this are happening,”
Last December, the Indians released a statement that due to the national cultural upheaval in the aftermath of the George Floyd race riots that it was necessary to retire the name that the team has had since 1915, stating that it no longer was in alignment with its organizational values.
On Friday, the organization pulled back the curtain to reveal the inspiration behind the new name, the stone statues on Cleveland’s Hope Memorial Bridge.
Why Guardians?
Our fans spoke and we listened. pic.twitter.com/QV5NSwk4Ez
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 24, 2021
The Indians had already canceled beloved team mascot Chief Wahoo was retired back in 2018, making his final appearance during the final game of an 0-3 series sweep by the Houston Astros in the American League divisional playoffs.
Trump lamented that the latest surrender to the cancel culture was a slap in the face to Native Americans whose proud heritage has been hijacked as a political weapon by the zealots on the left.
“Such a disgrace, and I guarantee that the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country,”said Trump. “Wouldn’t it be an honor to have a team named the Cleveland Indians, and wouldn’t it be disrespectful to rip that name and logo off of those jerseys?”
One thing was missing from the happy dance being done by intolerant liberals and the media and that is the true story behind the team’s nickname. The Indians were named as a tribute to the first Native-American player in professional baseball history.
Louis Sockalexis was a member of the Penobscot Tribe who played for the Cleveland Spiders from 1897-1899 and during his brief career, faced many of the same problems as African-American pioneers like Jackie Robinson due to his race. He was taunted, slurred, and mocked by opposing fans with war whoops and other derogatory gestures due to his being an Indian and had serious problems with alcoholism that adversely impacted his career.
The "Cleveland Indians" was originally intended to honor Louis Sockalexis, a Native American baseball player who played for the Cleveland Spiders in the late 1800s, and who is often credited as the first Native American to play professional baseball. pic.twitter.com/jA8t5I4FCm
— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) July 23, 2021
According to his Wikipedia page:
Although Sockalexis had a brief career, he faced many obstacles during his time in professional baseball. It was reported that fans of the opposing teams often shouted racial slurs toward him due to his Penobscot heritage. Additionally, fans imitated war whoops and war dances in his presence. Later, when sports journalists attributed his rapid decline to alcoholism, they identified the disease as the inherent “Indian weakness”.
When the Cleveland Naps changed their name to the Indians in 1915, the franchise reportedly did so to honor Sockalexis. The Indians’ official media guide says that the owners solicited sportswriters to ask fans for their favorite nickname, and the name Indians was chosen by a young girl who wrote to one of the sportswriters whose column requested suggestions. She specifically mentioned Sockalexis and his heritage. A brief story in the February 28, 1915, issue of the Plain Dealer states that the Cleveland Indians would wear the depiction of an Indian head on the left sleeves of their uniforms to “keep the Indians reminded of what the Braves did last year.” Sockalexis had died two years earlier.
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) which is a respected authority on baseball history has perhaps the definitive article on the namesake for the Cleveland Indians, a true honor for Native Americans and not the racist shame that the liberal liars have twisted history to fit their agenda.
Professional sports have been so poisoned by a leftist ideology that millions of fans continue to tune out rather than be beaten over the head by the leftist scolds who act as their moral superiors.
