Some fans are Guardians only of the past
CLEVELAND » Bill Boldin, a fan of Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team for most of his 52 years, conducted an informal poll Friday while he waited to meet friends at the Cleveland Guardians’ first home game of the season.
Boldin counted the team names on the jerseys of fellow Cleveland fans as they wandered around downtown. He tallied 38 shirts that featured the word “Indians” for the team’s old nickname, before he saw even one with the team’s new name, Guardians. It was a heavily unbalanced ratio, and an unscientific dataset, but not unexpected.
“And I hope it stays like that forever,” Boldin said.
Boldin’s views represent a large swath of Cleveland fans, many of whom vehemently opposed the team’s decision in 2020 to change its name after 107 years. The decision came after decades of protest by Native American groups and others, who argue the old name was racist.
Friday was the first home game for the rebranded Guardians, a new name chosen, in part, to capture a historic, Cleveland- centric theme reflected by the Guardians of Traffic statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge near Progressive Field, where the team plays. The team had already played six games as the Guardians this season, but those were all on the road. Friday provided the first opportunity for home fans to gather en masse and express their feelings and loyalties.
Bob Hostutler, a computer store owner from Willoughby, Ohio, wore a crisp, white jersey with the old team name on it and a hat depicting Chief Wahoo, the infamous old logo of a cartoonish, smiling Native American.
That caricature, beloved by many but deemed grossly offensive by others, was retired from the team uniforms in 2019 as the franchise began a gradual process to distance itself from the old imagery and nickname.
“I love Chief Wahoo,” Hostutler declared.
In the days after the team announced it would abandon its centuryold name, Hostutler vowed that he would never pay to see the Guardians, so incensed was he by the decision. But when his brother offered him a ticket to Friday’s game, he decided to go. Then, at a pregame tailgate party Friday afternoon, he was handed a Guardians T- shirt as part of a promotional giveaway. He took the shirt but planned to regift it.
“I’ll never wear it,” he said.
For decades, protests against the team name were as much a part of opening day in Cleveland as flyovers and ceremonial first pitches. But Friday, for the first time in recent memory, there were no protests other than a man carrying an American flag advocating world peace and another man a few blocks away promoting religious piety.
The new form of protest comes in the form of shirts and jackets emblazoned with the word “Indians,” and caps depicting Chief Wahoo. In some cases, it is the only team attire owned by the fans wearing it, and many of the jerseys bear the names of former players who never wore a Guardians shirt. Even for fans who support the new name, asking them to buy all new gear would require a significant outlay. But in other cases, wearing the old clothing was the point.