After over a century, the Cleveland Indians are changing their name to the Guardians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baseball (and other pro sports) teams commonly are named after fierce animals, or groups of people. I grew up in Pittsburgh, which has the Pirates. Boston had the Braves, who kept that name even after moving first to Milwaukee and then to Atlanta. Cleveland named the Indians as a reaction to the Braves, as was discussed by Tyler Carey at WKYC on July 4, 2021 in an article titled Before becoming the ‘Guardians,’ how did Cleveland’s baseball team end up with the name ‘Indians’? It’s more complicated than you think.

 

Another article by Graison Dangor at Forbes on July 23, 2021 titled Cleveland’s baseball team switches name to ‘Guardians’ after calls to drop ‘Indians’ moniker mentioned one clueless reaction from out of town:

 

“Former President Donald Trump released a statement calling the name change ‘a disgrace’ and claimed that ‘the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country’ - even though American Indian groups lead protests against the team’s name and logo for nearly a half century.”

 

The Indians uniforms came from Wikimedia Commons.