Francesca Missella
After having Chief Wahoo as their primary logo for 102 years, the Cleveland Indians will no longer be using it due to Major League Baseball pressure. Starting with the 2019 MLB season, the Indians will no longer feature cartoon character, Chief Wahoo, on their uniforms.
The Cleveland Indians were initially called the Cleveland Spiders until 1899 which they then changed to the Cleveland Naps, after their star player Nap Lajoie. According to NBC Sports, after Lajoie departed in 1914 owner Charles Somers asked local baseball writers to come up with a new name.
The name Indians and the logo came about because then star player Louis Sockalexis is believed to be the first Native American in the MLB. Originally the logo was used to honor Native Americans and the rich history of them in Northeast Ohio not with the purpose of disrespecting.
“I do not believe that the Indians should be changed because it’s been around for so long and I feel people are reading into why the logo was made and not the true reason,” senior Michaela Light said.
Many have criticized the logo as a sign of racism because the cartoon character features what some call a ‘Stereotypical American’ Indian face. According to USA Today, every year since the 1990’s playoff runs, groups of Native Americans have protested outside the stadium before the home opener in hopes getting Chief Wahoo permanently removed.
In 2014 the Tribe have began using a block “C” as their logo more often by shifting it as the primary cap logo and displaying it around the ballpark. In Aug. 2016, Indians managment released that they had no plans to change the logo and found it not disrespectful to Native Americans.
“ I do feel the logo should be changed because so many people feel offended and have protested for years over the logo. I still was and will be an Indians fan regardless of the logo,” Sophomore Hannah Williams said.
Major League Baseball then publicly stated they would not force the Indians to change their name since it has been in use for 100 years. National criticism did not occur until Oct.2016, when the Indians had a showdown with the Toronto Blue Jays for the American League Championship Series and the World Series.
During the American League championship, the city of Toronto tried to file an appeal for the Indians to remove the team name and logo patches from their jerseys to not be shown on Canadian TV. Two days after the devastating World Series game 7 loss to the Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball released that they would look into the logo and hold a meeting to discuss if changes needed to be made.
Ultimately, pressure on management from the MLB heightened when Cleveland was named the host city for the 2019 All-Star Game. Many believe if Cleveland had never won the bid for the All-Star game the logo would never have changed. The MLB feared if the logo still represented the team they would lose people from attending the most popular game of the year and cause the loss of millions of dollars.
While many believe this is the end of the road for Chief Wahoo, they are completely wrong. MLB is not all for the change after allowing the ball to continue selling merchandise featuring the mascot in Northeast Ohio. This is in order for the MLB and the Indians to keep ownership of the trademark. In many ways Chief Wahoo will never disappear and will forever be a part of Cleveland history.
Category Archives: Sports
Girls Track finishes rained-out meet
By Lauren Rayman
The girl’s track team got rained out while facing Wadsworth on Tuesday, April 3. They went back to the Grizzly Stadium to finish the meet on Thurs, April 12.
“I was happy at first because it was so cold and the weather was gross, but now I wish it wasn’t cancelled because they were on spring break and had a lot of girls missing so we had a better chance of winning,” captain Maddie Merlene said.
At the first attempt of the meet on April 3, the 4×800 meter relay, 100 meter hurdles and the 100 meter dash had been completed. Freshman Jordan Lyle had already competed in the 100 hurdles.
“I think I did better today than last week because the weather and the vibes were a lot better than last Tuesday,” Lyle said.
Despite being ready to run in the poor conditions of the meet last week, the team agrees that running this week was better for the team all around.
“I don’t think it messed with us. If anything, it gave us more time to practice and prepare for our next meet,” Merlene said.
Lyle believes that the meet being cancelled last week and rescheduled for this week was better not only because of the weather but because the girls had a bigger team this week.
Many girls who were injured and unable to run last week had recovered and were able to compete this week.
These are just some of the benefits of the meet last week being cancelled due to weather conditions, but there are also cons about it being this week.
“We had to drive 45 minutes again to Wadsworth, and all of their girls came back from spring break, and they were able to do all of their field events from the start, when many of our girls had to do their field events when it was cold and hard to do anything,” Merlene said.
This was also the second meet of the week for the team and some athletes will be competing at the Walsh Relays at Walsh Jesuit High School on Saturday.
The girls track team has two home meets next week. They will face Twinsburg on April 17 and Hudson on April 19 at senior night.
March Madness begins with upsets and surprises
By Evan Bainbridge
The month of march is all about college basketball and the NCAA tournament. These games are all about crazy upsets, huge blowouts and a chance to take a national championship back to school.
The tournament starts out with 68 teams, and then after the first four play-in games are done the round of 64 starts. This is the first actual round of the NCAA tournament and many people, nationwide, fill out brackets to try and win money and enjoy many games of basketball.
After the round of 64, there are usually no perfect brackets left (occasionally there is but…) because there is bound to be a couple upsets in the first round that nobody expects. This round is followed by the round of 32, then the Sweet 16, then the Elite 8, followed by the Final Four and finally the NCAA Championship game.
“I think it has been the best one I have ever seen, just because of all the upsets and the Cinderella stories, like UMBC beating Virginia,” junior Jackson Carlson said.
March Madness this year has been an exciting one for most fans because of the upsets and close games, but that can also crush someone’s bracket. The biggest upset thus far in the tournament was the 16 seeded UMBC Retrievers beating the one seeded Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the tournament, 74-54. This was the first time in NCAA history that a one seed has ever lost to a 16 seed, and it was unexpected by everyone because Virginia was suppose to be the number one team in the whole tournament.
“This year’s tournament was full of upsets and exciting games with my favorites being UMBC and Loyola of Chicago. I loved UMBC’s energy and presence in the tournament. This was one of the most exciting first rounds in a couple years, but my bracket was destroyed after round one,” sophomore, Matthew Duffy said.
UMBC ended up losing in the round of 32, but they were the talk of the nation and still are today because they will go down in history forever. Loyola of Chicago came in the tournament as an 11 seed, and they have upset two teams in the first two rounds to advance to the Sweet 16.
The Sweet 16 games will be this Thursday and Friday where four games will be played each night. As the games get closer and closer to the championship, they start to get better and better because they are all fighting to be the National Basketball Champions of the NCAA in 2018.
Winter Games recap
By Shea Sullivan
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, came to an end on February 25. History was made by many, surprises occurred and the Olympic spirit struck the world.
Starting at the opening ceremonies, North and South Korea marched in together under a unified Korea flag for the first time since the countries have been divided. North and South Korea also competed together as one hockey team, which brought hope to both countries despite losing in the first game.
Russia walked in under the Olympic flag, not permitted to wear any patriotic colors, and they were listed as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” (OAR) as punishment for doping in 2014.
Moving on to the medal count, Norway dominated the Olympics winning a total of 39 medals, the most medals ever won by a country at a single Winter Olympics, bleacher report stated.
Germany came in second, winning a total of 31 medals. Germany was expected to win the most gold medals, and they did, but Norway tied with them, both winning 14 gold medals.
Canada finished third in the medal count, winning 29 total medals, 11 which were gold. The United States finished behind Canada, winning 23 total medals, 9 gold.
Shockingly, the Olympic Athletes from Russia won 17 medals, but only two of them were gold. Those two gold medals were won in hockey and women’s figure skating.
In hockey, the United States women’s team beat Canada in a shocking upset for the first time in 20 years. The game went into overtime and the United States eventually scored in a shootout, securing the gold.
These Winter Olympics were not the best for the United States in figure skating. The U.S. only won bronze in the team event and bronze in ice dance thanks to Maia and Alex Shibutani.
However, this U.S. figure skating team broke history multiple times despite only winning two bronze medals.
Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land the triple axel at the Olympics, Nathan Chen became the first person to land five quads in a program, Vincent Zhou landed the first quad lutz at the Olympics, the Shibutanis were the first pair of Asian descent to medal in ice dance and Adam Rippon was one of the first openly gay men to win a medal in figure skating.
Yet the most history breaking story the US might remember from these is Olympics is finally winning cross country skiing gold. Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first Americans to ever win this event at the Olympics.
Snowboard big air make its Olympic debut in PyeongChang. In the men’s event, Canadian Sebastien Toutant took gold, with American Kyle Mack earning silver. American Jamie Anderson also took silver in the women’s event.
Lindsey Vonn was the favorite to take the gold in downhill skiing and win a medal in the combined event; however, it did not work out that way. Vonn finished third in downhill and was disqualified in the combined.
Mikaela Shiffrin was victorious in the giant slalom and also took home a silver in the combined event.
One of the biggest shocks of the Olympics was made by the Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka. Ledecka became the first athlete to medal in two different sports at the Olympics, but even more astonishing, she won gold in both events: super-G and snowboarding parallel giant slalom.
Curling caught the world’s attention at these Olympics. Curling has been a medal event in the Olympics since 1998, but it never seemed to catch attention until it arrived in PyeongChang.
The United States has not won a gold in only four events at the Winter Olympics, curling was one until these Olympics. The men’s US curling team defeated the favorites, Sweden, in the gold medal match. Sweden, however, won in the women’s event with South Korea taking silver.
The host country historically does better at their own Olympic, and South Korea definitely did. This was their most successful Olympics, winning 17 medals, 5 of which were gold.
However, the Olympics are not just about winning medals. They are about the world putting their difference aside and coming together, even if that means playing just one hockey game.
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