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Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo Dropped from Topps Cards

By David Hill

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 21: A man sells vintage baseball cards prior to the start of the last game at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees on September 21, 2008 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Yankee Stadium held it's inaugural game on April 18, 1923 against the Boston Red Sox and tonight's match will be the final game to be played at the historic stadium. During it's 85 years as ''The Home of Champions,'' the stadium has also been known as ''The House that Ruth Built'' and ''The Cathedral.'' The stadium has been host to 33 World Series, three Papal visits and has been visited by legends such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Bera, Mickey Mantle and boxing great Muhummad Ali. In 2009 the Yankees will move across the street to a newly constructed stadium estimated to cost $1.3 billion. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 21: A man sells vintage baseball cards prior to the start of the last game at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees on September 21, 2008 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Yankee Stadium held it's inaugural game on April 18, 1923 against the Boston Red Sox and tonight's match will be the final game to be played at the historic stadium. During it's 85 years as ''The Home of Champions,'' the stadium has also been known as ''The House that Ruth Built'' and ''The Cathedral.'' The stadium has been host to 33 World Series, three Papal visits and has been visited by legends such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Bera, Mickey Mantle and boxing great Muhummad Ali. In 2009 the Yankees will move across the street to a newly constructed stadium estimated to cost $1.3 billion. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) /
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 The controversy about Cleveland Indians mascot Chief Wahoo has extended beyond the playing field. Very quietly, Topps has removed the mascot from their products.

Over the past few years, Chief Wahoo has come under fire. The longtime Cleveland Indians mascot has been targeted for elimination by various groups, an image of a bygone era. The smiling face has been considered derogatory towards native Americans, and has slowly been phased out by Cleveland.

However, even if Chief Wahoo is retired from the game, the image will still live on. Photographs of former Indians players will depict the logo, and the image is still used by the Indians to this day. Even if Major League Baseball wants to eliminate Chief Wahoo, they cannot entirely remove it from the history of the game.

That does not appear to be stopping Topps from trying to do just that. Very quietly, Topps is removing images that could be deemed offensive from their new and throwback products, having removed Chief Wahoo and the Atlanta Braves “screaming Indian” logo. However, to be fair to the Braves, they no longer use that image themselves, unlike the Indians and their own questionable mascot.

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Fortunately, Topps is not resorting to airbrushing out the logos. On the cards themselves, the logos are being depicted as a block C for Cleveland, and the Braves A logo for Atlanta. At least we do not have to deal with those mediocre airbrushed images from sets like the 1974 and 1976 Traded sets.

it is also interesting that, without much fanfare, these changes are being made. Given the partnership that MLB has with Topps to produce these cards, it may be a way that the league can subtly influence the Indians to give up their old logo. Even if the game cannot force the Indians to send Chief Wahoo packing, they do not need to have the image on officially licensed items like baseball cards.

Next: Cubs will overtake Brewers

The battle over Chief Wahoo is ongoing. With the elimination of the image from Topps baseball cards, Major League Baseball may have sent a subtle message to the Cleveland Indians.

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