The Cleveland Indians are more than likely getting a new name, and here are three Cleveland-specific names for the club to consider.
We get it, some of you aren’t fans of a name change. There isn’t anything we can do about it other than accept it. The name is outdated, it is geographically inaccurate and there is no way the story of the team naming itself after Louis Sockalexis is true. Mostly due to the racism he faced at the time and the fact he was an awful ballplayer.
A name change is needed, it’s warranted and many welcome it. A person’s fandom for the team goes beyond a silly nickname and a racist caricature. It’s Jim Thome going opposite every night it felt like. It’s Corey Kluber putting together the greatest five-year stretch a pitcher has ever had in Cleveland. It’s three World Series chases that despite falling short were absolute magic. It’s Joba Chamberlain being eaten alive by midges and never being seen again.
It’s endless amounts of trips to the ballpark with family, friends, and loved ones. It’s the heckling of Mike Aviles all game long only for him to hit a walk-off shot that sent the crowd into a frenzy. It’s watching a game in the nose-bleeds into the 13th inning when the Indians finally pulled off a miracle win with a walk-off balk.
It’s watching Bill Selby end the dominance of Mariano Rivera on a walk-off grand slam. It’s baseball in Cleveland. Not a logo. Not a name. Things change. Memories shouldn’t. If the only reason you care about this team is because of its name, you were never a real fan in the first place.
Cleveland is baseball. That’s why when they change their name, something that happened often back in the day mind you, they should pick something that captures the essence of the city.
The Steel
Everyone’s going to start crying “WAAAAH BUT DA PITSBERGH STEALERS UZE DIZ NAAME”. Who cares? This isn’t football. This isn’t the National Football League. We’re not renaming the Cleveland Browns to the Steel; calm down. The reason why “the Steel” works is simple.
Cleveland is the birthplace of Superman. The Man of Steel, himself, created in Cleveland. How cool is that? With the Superman statue set to be unveiled sometime soon, hopefully, and the house that Jerry Siegel lived in being turned into a monument of sorts, what better way to have brand synergy than to attach yourself to the most iconic superhero of all time?
Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in Cleveland back in the 1930s after meeting one another at Glennville High. Their impact on comics maybe the most important in the history of the medium. The town should embrace that identity.
Now, it’s unlikely that Warner Bros/AT&T will want to lease the property to the Cleveland baseball club, so something more detached but still close enough would be wonderful. The Cleveland Steel is the perfect workaround. You can put the Cleveland block-C logo inside the old Superman chest symbol, and boom. Instant fan-favorite merchandise was just created.
It also plays well with the red, white, and blue of the current Cleveland color design. You know, truth, justice, the American way. Admittedly, there will be hurdles to overcome here. It won’t be easy but assuming legal won’t have to do too much work, this seems doable.
The Guardians of Erie
If the Lake Erie Monsters isn’t too long of a name to exist, this one isn’t either. The two stone guardians that are built into the Hope Memorial Bridge are profound, they are beautiful and they are perfect symbols for the town. Cleveland is one of the most major ports along the Great Lakes Waterway and actually serves as a needed point of harbor for many ships. Not only that but Cleveland has taken a lead on all things medical thanks to the top-notch care provided by all local area hospitals, including but limited to the Cleveland Clinic.
The idea that these stone monoliths would serve as inspiration for the team’s renaming seems almost right. Like it was meant to be. The logo could be some cool mashup of the St. Louis BattleHawks and New York Guardians. Where you have the stone face of the Hope Memorial Guardian, inside a sword and shield with wings attached, as a nice homage to local area medical professionals.
Plus it’d give us a reason to see Slider running around in a suit of armor that poorly fits his rather jovial frame. Everyone’s a sucker for slapstick comedy, so it’d be very hilarious to seer Slider falling down like a klutz all the time.
The name works, it’s unique and different enough to stand out. The idea of the logo is beautiful, prolific, and would be widely praised. The team would be flooded with positive press, new fans may be exposed to the team and that means new fans may invest their time and money into the team.
It’s a positive move and a win/win.
The Cleveland White Rocks
The story of the team being named the Indians after Louis Sockalexis is more myth than fact. It’s actually more a lie than anything. Sockalexis never played for the Cleveland Indians franchise. In fact, the Cleveland Spiders were not the former name of the Indians. It was an entirely different club. Sold off and sent away for parts. Sockalexis played just 94 games for the Spiders nearly two decades before the Indians came to be as a team name. He wasn’t even good enough to stick around for a terrible Spiders team, having been cut due to his poor performance on a squad that went 20-134.
Do you really think a bench scrub on the worst team of all time was honored in super-racist 1915? No. Not even slightly. The two clubs weren’t even owned by the same people. Frank Robinson (not that one) owned the Spiders while Charles Somers was the principal owner of the new club.
There isn’t any way shape or form that the Spiders legacy and the Indians history are in any way shape or form tied to one another, other than they existed in the same city. It’s like saying the Los Angeles Rams (formerly the Cleveland Rams) and the Cleveland Browns are the same franchise. They’re not.
Yet, the idea of honoring the first known player from the Penobscot Tribe (Sockalexis) isn’t a bad idea. First Nations people deserve a positive and dignified portrayal and the Indians just aren’t cutting it. Assuming the tribe signs off on it, the White Rocks would be the perfect way to pay homage to the tribe that Sockalexis came from.
Penobscot means “the people of where the white rocks extend out”, and hail from Maine. The White Rocks may not have much barring on Cleveland as a historical landmark or piece of natural geography (we can make some, let’s be honest) but it would right a wrong. Using Sockalexis as an excuse for an incorrect name has to be done away with. Naming your team after his tribe, however, may in fact be a way to honor him and his people.
As long as you do it with tact, grace, and dignity.