Allow me to take a moment to wholeheartedly endorse what Joe Posnanski says about the terribly offensive mascot of the Cleveland Indians, Chief Wahoo:
[I]t is not just time to get rid of Wahoo, it is way, way past time. I don’t think this is the biggest problem facing the world, or even the 54,993,287th biggest problem facing the world. I don’t care about political correctness either. No. It’s just wrong. Very wrong. Get rid of it. The fewer wrong things in the world, better.
And it brings me all the way back to this … why can’t we just go back to calling the team the Spiders. That’s a great name, and it’s not taken by anybody in major sports. There’s history there. It actually fits Cleveland (believe me, there are more spiders in Cleveland than Native Americans — especially those creepy Daddy Long Legs that are like walking paperclips). And there are a million incredible logo and mascot possibilities.
Even if they don’t get rid of the Indians nickname (I think you might as well go all the way) it’s definitely time to bury Wahoo. This would be a good year to make it happen. The Indians are a game away from the World Series. There is some real joy happening. There is some real exciement. The Indians have a real chance to end the longest citywide sports drought in American sports. There are a lot of good feelings in the Cleveland air. It would be a good time to bury a logo that should never have been born to begin with.
Amen. That’s the very end of his piece, which starts with the history of the franchise’s nicknames and logos, so do read the whole thing. And before anyone says that things like Chief Wahoo don’t matter, go review the Slate slideshow of racist spokescharacters and see if you still feel that way. Link via King Kaufman.