Manfred wants Indians to change logo.
Chief Wahoo increasingly seen as offensive, wildly outdated
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians returned home to Progressive Field on Tuesday for the first time since an agonizing Game 7 defeat to the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. They raised the 2016 American League pennant and handed out rings before the focus turned back to the current season.
It is a season in which the Indians may again be one of the top teams in baseball, but it is also one in which they may have to wrestle increasingly with the issue of Chief Wahoo, the smiling caricature that has long been an Indians logo but has come to be seen as offensive and wildly outdated.
Among those who think it is time for the club to decisively move away from the logo is the Major League Baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred, who in continuing discussions with the team’s ownership is beginning to apply a little bit of pressure on the club to come up with a plan of action.
In a statement to The New York Times, Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said Manfred in his talks with the Indians’ owners, had made clear his “desire to transition away from the Chief Wahoo logo.”
“We have specific steps in an identified process and are making progress,” Courtney added. “We are confident that a positive resolution will be reached that will be good for the game and the club.”
Although Manfred had previously acknowledged a willingness to engage in talks with the Indians about the logo, Courtney’s statement appears to be the first time that Manfred is identified as having staked out a clear position on the issue.
It is an issue, however, that may not be that easy to resolve. Although many people, including baseball fans around the country, would welcome the removal of Chief Wahoo, there is a significant segment of the Indians’ fan base that still cherishes the logo, which has existed in various forms since 1947.
“Chief Wahoo is the Cleveland Indians,” said Karen Hale, a local Indians fan who was outside the stadium before Tuesday’s game. “I think there comes a time when you have to take a stand for what you believe in. I don’t think it’s hurting anybody.”
Philip Yenyo, executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, has
been protesting at the Indians’ opening day games for years and vehemently disagrees with Hale and others with similar views. He would prefer the team eliminate the logo, and the Indians name as well, but he would be happy for the club to start with the logo.
During this year’s protest, Yenyo engaged in a cordial conversation with a team employee. And Yenyo said that over the years the Indians had been very cooperative in arranging for security to protect the two dozen or so protesters who do show up outside the stadium.
Still, as Yenyo spoke through a megaphone at Tuesday’s demonstration, a man barreled through the protesters and yelled at him: “It’s a caricature. Get over it.”
Bob DiBiasio, the Indians’ senior vice president for public affairs, said during Tuesday’s home opener that the club understood the passion on both sides of the issue and that in some ways the team was caught in the middle, trying to find an amicable solution.
“We certainly understand the sensitivities of the logo, those who find it insensitive and also those fans who have a long-standing attachment to its place in the history of the team,” he said.
DiBiasio called the continuing talks productive between Manfred and Paul Dolan, the Indians’ chairman and chief executive. With their sights set on a return to the World Series, the Indians would prefer to address Chief Wahoo after the season to avoid any distractions that could alienate a large swath of fans while games are being played.
“Our primary focus right now is on the team,” he said.
And it may be a really good team, especially with the addition of Edwin Encarnacion, the right-handed slugger who left Toronto to sign a three-year, $60 million contract with the Indians.
The club has already sold 1.3 million tickets for the 2017 season, DiBiasio said, noting that it did not reach that mark until the end of July last year. In 2016, Cleveland’s attendance was 28th out of 30 teams with 1.59 million tickets sold, but in the wake of the Indians’ 2016 postseason run, that number is now likely to soar.
Manager Terry Francona noted Tuesday that his team seemed to thrive when the stadium was full, as it was Tuesday, when the Indians prevailed in extra innings against the Chicago White Sox. And sure enough, many of the fans in attendance wore the Chief Wahoo logo on their hats and shirts.
The move to do away with the logo appeared to begin when Mark Shapiro, who is now running the Blue Jays, was the Indians’ team president for baseball operations.
Shapiro was the driving force behind reemphasizing the block C logo, which has been seen on Cleveland caps since 1902 and has recently become more prominent on various uniform and cap combinations the Indians use, as well as around the stadium.
During last year’s American League Championship Series between the Blue Jays and Indians, Shapiro said that he was personally troubled by the Wahoo logo and suggested that its days were numbered.
“I think there will be a day, whenever that is, that the people that are making decisions here decide that Chief Wahoo is no longer fitting,” he said then.
When the Indians-Blue Jays playoff series moved to Toronto last October, an indigenous Canadian citizen filed for an injunction to prevent Cleveland from using the Wahoo logo while in Canada. Major League Baseball joined the Indians in opposing the injunction, which was not granted. But in its statement at the time baseball said it also welcomed dialogue about the logo. That dialogue began in the weeks after the World Series and will most likely continue until a resolution is reached.
At Tuesday’s game, the Chief Wahoo logo could not be seen anywhere on the stadium building or on the field, but it was on the left sleeves of the blue jerseys worn by the Indians players and on their caps. And it was on the white uniform shirts worn by the Cleveland sports legends Jim Brown, Austin Carr and Jim Thome when they went to the mound to throw out the celebratory first pitches before the game.
The logo could also be found on many items in the team souvenir shop, along with stickers depicting an even harsher representation of Chief Wahoo from an earlier period. For now, at least, the logo still survives and even thrives.