Indians officially change to Guardians

The Cleveland Indians will officially transition to the Guardians today, completing a name change that has been happening in stages over the past few months.

The team sent out a release on Wednesday saying its team shop at Progressive Field will begin selling Guardians merchandise and souvenirs later this week.

The team said some digital elements changed Thursday before Cleveland’s team website and social media handles transition today.

On Tuesday, the AL franchise cleared a final hurdle in the makeover as a lawsuit filed by a local roller derby team called the Guardians was resolved. The sides agreed to move forward with both teams using Guardians.

Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team has been known as the Indians since 1915. But after years of protests and following the club dropping its contentious Chief Wahoo logo, the Indi- ans decided to change to Guardians, a name inspired by eight massive, art-deco statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge near the ballpark.

The top three players have advanced to the semifinals at the ATP Finals.

Third-ranked Alexander Zverev joined No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the last four at the season-ending event for the top eight players by beating Hubert Hurkacz 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday.

Having qualified second in his group behind Medvedev, Zverev’s semifinal opponent will be Djokovic, who won the other group.

Medvedev’s semifinal opponent will be determined today when Andrey Rublev meets Casper Ruud on the final day of round-robin play.

Zverev lost to Djokovic at the Australian Open and U.S. Open this year but beat the Serb at the Tokyo Olympics en route to the gold medal.