The Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo logo has long been a hot-button issue among fans and activists. Is it finally time for the club to retire him and move in another direction entirely?
I am a born and bred Clevelander. Some of my earliest memories are heading down to old Municipal Stadium with my father and brother to buy $3 general admission tickets and sit down the right field line to watch such luminaries of the game as Alex Cole, Brook Jacoby, and Cory Snyder. And on every drive downtown, I knew we were getting close to the ballpark when the monstrous Chief Wahoo statue that adorned its facade came into view.
Those of us who grew up on the shores of Lake Erie have a complicated relationship with the Chief. While the logo is a part of the team’s and the city’s history, it also has a history unto itself as a lightning rod for controversy. That the Indians – along with other professional sports teams like the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves, and Kansas City Chiefs – continue to use names and imagery that are offensive to an entire race of people has come to seem absurd (at least to this writer) in 2016.
With Cleveland playing a quick two-game series against the Washington Nationals in D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday, the question of Chief Wahoo was once again raised, this time by John Woodrow Cox of the Washington Post.
This is not new for those of us who grew up with the Indians. Every year around Opening Day, the stories surface. Twice in late March and early April this season, the oft-revered, oft-reviled mascot became the subject of news and online argument, and the team hadn’t even played a game yet.
First, Indians owner Paul Dolan commented that the Chief had officially been supplanted as the primary logo of the team, in favor of the wholly uncontroversial Block C. This wasn’t actually particularly newsworthy, as it happened a couple of seasons ago, but the sportswriter community and online fandom pushed it up near the top of the sports news heap.
Then, Bomani Jones went on the Mike and Mike in the Morning radio show, the most popular sports talk show in the country, wearing a Cleveland Caucasians t-shirt that depicted a blonde haired, blue eyed chief-like character with a green money sign coming out of his head instead of a feather. ESPN, which produces Mike and Mike, allegedly “freaked out” out about it and ordered Jones to cover it with his hoodie.
And these sorts of things have been going on for decades.
I hesitated to even write this piece. Doing so is a damned if you do/don’t situation. To either side of the debate, anyone weighing in is either overreacting or underreacting.
I’m about as far removed from emotional or ancestral investment in the issue as one can be. But, as a lifelong fan of the Tribe and baseball in general, as well as someone who possesses working empathy and understands that the views of others may differ from mine and still not be categorically wrong, I have come to a conclusion: it is time to retire the Chief. For good. Officially.
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