The Cleveland Guardians? Yes, It's Official

[carlsonjok]

Originally Posted by BobC

I wonder if we'd be having this discussion had the Indians agreed to give a percentage of their take every year to some indian tribes or charities for the supposed use of the term "Indians"? Would be interesting to see how the "insulted" ethnic group would have reacted had the team ownership just voluntarily decided to change the name, and then informed those tribes/charities they would no longer be getting any money from the team.

You may want to re-examine your assumptions here. There is certainly still significant poverty in native communities, but tribes are considered sovereign nations and in many states are quite rich due to operating casinos and other businesses. Here in Oklahoma, our governor had the brilliant idea that he would renegotiate the gaming compact with the tribes to increase the revenue for the state. The tribes basically told him to f--k off and made it stick. The tribes are probably the most powerful political constituency in Oklahoma behind the oil and gas industry. So, throwing a little charity their way under the assumption they'll be grateful for your largesse may fail spectacularly.

Funny (now) story. My wife is an Ohio girl and while I am not originally from there, it is where my family lives now. A number of years ago, on a visit, I (without even thinking) bought an Indians ballcap with the Chief Wahoo logo on it. When I got back home (without even thinking) I wore it out in public, I got a lot of dirty looks. Needless to say, the hat was relegated to yardwork duty and, within a year, was in the trash.

As for the name, I love it. Cleveland is a great town and the Guardians of Transportation are a significant local landmark. They are part of the Hope Memorial Bridge which connects the Ohio City neighborhood to downtown. The ballpark sits at the east end of the bridge. My wife and I were back there a few weekends ago for a wedding. As is our habit, we went to Ohio City for lunch and a visit to the Market Garden microbrewery (which uses a Guardian in their corporate logo.) There was a little art fair going on in a plaza across 25th Street from the West Side Market and there was a lot of Guardian inspired artwork on display. I even bought this t-shirt:



It really made me realize how much the Guardians of Transportation are part of Clevelands identity.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by carlsonjok

You may want to re-examine your assumptions here. There is certainly still significant poverty in native communities, but tribes are considered sovereign nations and in many states are quite rich due to operating casinos and other businesses. Here in Oklahoma, our governor had the brilliant idea that he would renegotiate the gaming compact with the tribes to increase the revenue for the state. The tribes basically told him to f--k off and made it stick. The tribes are probably the most powerful political constituency in Oklahoma behind the oil and gas industry. So, throwing a little charity their way under the assumption they'll be grateful for your largesse may fail spectacularly.

Funny (now) story. My wife is an Ohio girl and while I am not originally from there, it is where my family lives now. A number of years ago, on a visit, I (without even thinking) bought an Indians ballcap with the Chief Wahoo logo on it. When I got back home (without even thinking) I wore it out in public, I got a lot of dirty looks. Needless to say, the hat was relegated to yardwork duty and, within a year, was in the trash.

As for the name, I love it. Cleveland is a great town and the Guardians of Transportation are a significant local landmark. They are part of the Hope Memorial Bridge which connects the Ohio City neighborhood to downtown. The ballpark sits at the east end of the bridge. My wife and I were back there a few weekends ago for a wedding. As is our habit, we went to Ohio City for lunch and a visit to the Market Garden microbrewery (which uses a Guardian in their corporate logo.) There was a little art fair going on in a plaza across 25th Street from the West Side Market and there was a lot of Guardian inspired artwork on display. I even bought this t-shirt:



It really made me realize how much the Guardians of Transportation are part of Clevelands identity.

Good point Jeff, I was just thinking that there are some native American people, or charities for them, that would likely appreciate getting a piece of the action. Those groups doing well probably don't care as much though, but I can't believe that all native American groups are doing that well that they wouldn't like a little extra income.

Usually the actual protesting of the Indians name is done basically by maybe a dozen or so people that show up outside the stadium on opening day every year, and then seem to be pretty much done for the rest of the year. So the bulk of the complaining and protesting is really coming from people online and out of town who aren't actually in Cleveland as far as I can tell, or are even fans of the team or otherwise attending games. It seems to be a small minority of the native Americans who are actually upset about the name Indians.

Anyway, was downtown today and had lunch over at Heck's which is in Ohio City across the bridge from the stadium, and stopped in the West Side Market afterwards to pick up some pad thai chicken. Great place to shop. Interesting note, Heck's restaurant is in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland, and is three or four doors down from the house where John Heisman was born and raised.