The Cleveland Indians announced Monday that they are dropping the Chief Wahoo logo from their uniforms next year, bowing to decades of complaints that the grinning, red-faced caricature used since 1947 is racist.
The move came after protracted discussions between team owner Paul Dolan and Commissioner Rob Manfred.
The cartoonish, big-toothed logo will come off the team’s jersey sleeves and caps starting with the 2019 season.
“Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game,” Manfred said in a statement. He said the logo “is no longer appropriate for on-field use.”
The decision is unlikely to quell complaints from Native American organizations and others who see the symbol as offensive.
The Indians will continue to wear the Wahoo logo in 2018, and even after it is taken off the uniform, the club still will sell merchandise featuring the mascot in the Cleveland area.
“I’m elated,” Philip Yenyo, executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio, said of the decision to stop using Wahoo on the uniforms. “But at the same time, I think it should be this year. I don’t understand why they’re drawing this out. It doesn’t make any sense to me, unless they want to continue to make what’s basically blood money.”
Yenyo and others have demanded that the team go further and drop “Indians” from its name: “If they don’t get rid of the name, then you’re still going to have fans going down there wearing headdresses and painted in red-face.”
Under growing pressure, the club has been moving away from the Chief Wahoo logo in recent years. The Indians replaced it with a “C” on some of their caps and removed signs with the Chief Wahoo logo in and around Progressive Field, the team’s ballpark.
National criticism and scrutiny over Chief Wahoo grew in 2016, when the Indians made the World Series and Manfred expressed his desire to have the team drop the symbol. During the playoffs, a lawsuit was filed while the club was playing in Toronto to have the logo and team name banned from Canadian television. A judge dismissed the case.
The Indians’ successful bid to host the 2019 All-Star Game further heightened the debate.
“While we recognize many of our fans have a long-standing attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019,” Dolan said in announcing the decision.
The team said it will continue to sell Chief Wahoo gear because if it stops doing so, it will lose ownership of the trademark and others will be able to use the symbol as they please.
Giants sign Blanco: Gregor Blanco agreed to a minor-league deal with the Giants, one of his former teams, according to his Instagram account.
Blanco, 34, batted .259 and scored 244 runs in his five seasons with the Giants and was a member of World Series title teams in 2012 and 2014, scoring 10 runs in each of those postseasons.
Blanco hit .246 with three homers and 43 runs in 90 games with Arizona last year after signing a minor-league deal with the Diamondbacks before spring training.
Royals sign Escobar: Kansas City signed Alcides Escobar to a $2.5 million deal, keeping its longtime shortstop on the roster after he joined first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas, outfielder Lorenzo Cain and pitcher Jason Vargas in hitting the open market.