Becoming the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves

It’s fair today to ask whether the Cleveland Indians honor something worth honoring.

Cleveland Indians officials for decades have touted the team nickname as an honorific bestowed to celebrate the accomplishments of one of the first Natives to reach the major leagues. That player was Louis Sockalexis, a member of the Penobscot tribe who from 1897 through 1899 played for the National League’s Cleveland Spiders, a predecessor team to the American League’s Indians.

When the Indians franchise was created as an original member of the American League in 1901, it was commonly referred to as the Blues, a reference to the dominant color of their uniforms. In short order, however, that changed. In 1902 the team obtained the rights to Napoleon Lajoie, probably baseball’s pre-eminent star of the era.

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So dominant was Lajoie’s presence that the club unofficially — and then officially — became known as the Naps in his honor. They remained the Naps through the season of 1914 after which Lajoie, then approaching 40,  was sold to the Philadelphia Athletics.

Since it obviously wouldn’t do to have a team named after a guy playing for an opponent, a contest was staged that winter to select a new team name. Fans supposedly sent in suggestions to a panel, which reviewed them and selected “Indians” as the new designation.

Louis Sockalexis

The announcement of the new name came without any formal explanation for why it was chosen. Over time, however, those supposedly in the know said it had been suggested by a long-time fan to honor Sockalexis.  If nothing else, the timing was suggestive. Sockalexis had died only one year earlier of heart ailments at the age of 42.

His death was widely reported in the local press, Sockalexis having been widely regarded among fans of baseball in the city. So there is at least plausibility to the contention that a sympathetic fan, acting so close to the player’s death, would have suggested honoring him.

Although Sockalexis was not the first member of a tribe to play in the major leagues, he was the most meteorically successful. In his first 60 games, he batted .370 and was the talk of the league. He homered in his April home debut. On May 1 he hit safely four times, one of them a triple.

In his first game at the Polo Grounds, Sockalexis homered off Amos Rusie, the most dominant pitcher of that age.

It all ended as quickly as it began. Over the July 4 weekend, Sockalexis was injured under circumstances that probably involved alcohol. His history with that libation is the primary reason why, assuming the name ‘Indians’ was chosen to honor him,’ it was probably a poor choice.

Alcohol

Sockalexis’ problems with liquor extend an indefinite distance back to his college days. How far back Is not clear. What is clear is that during his brief enrollment at Notre Dame over the winter of 1896-97. He ran afoul of the local authorities. That February, the South Bend Tribune reported that the college athlete had been arrested following a drunken spree at a local brothel run by a woman known in that city as Pop Corn Jennie.

Sockalexis was quickly expelled, but he was saved from jail time when Spiders manager Patsy Tebeau arrived in South Bend offering the locals a deal: If they’d free the player, he’d post bail, make good the damages and take the ballplayer back to Cleveland with him.

In other words, Sockalexis signed to avoid jail time.

As noted earlier, explanations vary for how Sockalexis was injured that July 4 weekend and why he declined so precipitously. But there is little doubt that liquor played a role. “I loved the firewater,” he would later freely admit. Whatever the reason, Sockalexis rarely played during the second half of the 1897 season. He batted just .224 in 21 games in 1898 and lasted just seven games into the 1899 season before being released as essentially uncontrollable.

He never played major league baseball again, drinking his way from one job to another until his death.

Proponents of retaining the Cleveland Indians nickname today to present it as a memorial to Sockalexis, which It may well be. Opponents note the lack of documentation but look beyond the more obvious criticism – that he was a terrible role model – because acknowledging that plays into negative if dated stereotypes about Indian behaviors.

But the reality is that to the extent the Cleveland team did choose to honor the player shortly after his death, they picked a romanticized image of a deeply flawed individual to place on the team’s pedestal.