MLB: Why is Cleveland changing its name to the Guardians?

Frederlin Castro | @fr3djcd

The Cleveland Indians are in the past. Now the Cleveland Guardians are here to stay in Major League Baseball.

Cleveland became the latest professional sports franchise to shed its Native American imagery amid accusations that its use is racist after having had the Indians name for some 105 years.

Under the Cleveland Indians name, the Indians played at least 17,000 games and won two World Series.

The name change

According to ESPN reporter Jeff Passa, in 1974, Dartmouth abandoned its Indians moniker, saying he found “using the symbol [indio] in any way is inconsistent with the College’s current institutional and academic goals to further Native American education.” William & Mary dropped out in 1977, St. Bonaventure in 1979, and Louisiana-Monroe in 2006. For the past 50 years, No fewer than 15 universities in the United States have ditched the Indians moniker in favor of something less polarizing and discovered that sports can, in fact, survive without racist caricatures and unnecessary nicknames.

Stanford has the most successful sports program in the United States.

The Indians’ name change is the latest by an organization reacting to a national movement, which gained momentum in the wake of widespread civil rights protests in 2019, to remove harmful names and symbols.

Momentum from the NFL

The name movement made by Cleveland had as its predecessor the one executed in the NFL by the Washington Redskins.

Team owner Dan Snyder was for years rejecting the change of name and images of the team for referencing Native Americans, but everything changed course after protests against social injustice began following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota in may. Days after Floyd’s death, multiple sources said Snyder had been discussing the name for several weeks with the league.

At that time, a letter signed by 87 investors and shareholders worth a total of $620 billion was sent to sponsors FedEx, PepsiCo and Nike, asking them to stop doing business with the team unless the name was changed. On July 2, FedEx released a statement saying it had informed the team that it wanted the name changed. The other sponsors subsequently released statements indicating the same. Amazon said it would stop selling Redskins merchandise. Walmart and Target reported that they would stop selling their products in their stores.

Now they are the Washington Commanders.

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MLB: Why is Cleveland changing its name to the Guardians?