Tipsheet

The Cleveland Indians Have a New Name and People Are Unimpressed

After more than a century as the Indians, Cleveland's baseball club announced a new name Friday as it rebrands following an unceremonious bowing to a woke everything-is-racist mob of online social justice warriors. 

In December 2020, the baseball team formerly known as the Indians announced they would be dropping their "offensive" moniker after "an extensive process to learn how our team name affected different constituencies and whether it aligned with our organizational values."

The team's owner, Paul Dolan, said at the time that "hearing firsthand the stories and experiences of Native American people, we gained a deep understanding of how tribal communities feel about the team name and the detrimental effects it has on them."

After much self-flagellation, the team landed on a name that, rather than following in the footsteps of the generic placeholder Washington Football Team, is an actual name. 

According to the team, leadership "heard this name often from our fans as a top contender because of it's[sic] connection to the iconic Cleveland landmark - The Hope Memorial Bridge that stands just outside of our ballpark where the Guardians of Traffic have become a symbol of the city's resiliency." 

The Guardians name was arrived at after 140 hours of interviews with community leaders and front office personnel and surveys completed by 40,000 fans, according to the team.

"The new Diamond C is an evolution of our classic Block C, and respects the tradition and heritage of Cleveland baseball," explains a guide to the rebrand. "The C stands tall – just as the Guardians of Traffic stand watch over our ballpark and city - and draws from the ascending diamond motifs at the top of each Guardian pylon" and "the weight of the C is bold and its tapered shape is inspired by the letterforms from the 1920 and 1948 World Series champions."

Curiously still tweeting from the @Indians Twitter handle, the team released a video narrated by Tom Hanks to hype their rebranding. 

They shouldn't have changed their name in the first place, but if the Guardians are looking for a pat on the back, they didn't get it. 

Even the Left's wokescolds are unimpressed with Cleveland's new logo.