![]() I think it’s incredibly important now that Maine and Holy Cross do more to recognize that we had an extraordinary ball player who never got the respect he deserved,” Rice said, referring to College of the Holy Cross, the Massachusetts college that Sockalexis attended. I am afraid now that the Cleveland team will forget the history and let it fade into the background. “It becomes even more important now to make sure Louis’ legacy is remembered. He’s still honored in the stadium.”Įd Rice, a baseball historian who wrote a book about Sockalexis, “Baseball’s First Indian: The Story of Penobscot Legend Louis Sockalexis,” met the news with some trepidation. But I think, even with this whole rebranding, Louis is still there. “Having that name would have kept that connection, and we are losing that. The Guardians of Traffic statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge prior to the game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Seattle Mariners on April 09. We wanted them to go back to the Spiders, which is the name they had when Louis was playing,” Sockalexis said. view of hope memorial bridge and 'guardian of traffic' sculptures from roadway cleveland, ohio - cleveland bridge statue stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images. ![]() “I’m glad Chief Wahoo is gone, but we as a family have kind of mixed feelings about it all. The team changed its name to the Cleveland Indians in 1915, a name that the team and its fans claim was chosen to honor Sockalexis and Native people in general, but in reality had a far more complicated, racist origin. ![]() Fans would ask him if he was drinking firewater, something that became ever more cruel over the course of his career, during which his alcoholism worsened. Nevertheless, Sockalexis was met with shouted racial slurs, demeaning “war whoops,” and fans doing “war dances” every time he took the field. He not only was the first known Native American to play professional baseball, but by all accounts, he was a phenom. Sockalexis, a Penobscot man, played for what were then the Cleveland Spiders for three seasons in 1897, 18. It’s not known when the team will stop selling that merchandise, though according to MLB.com, the change to the Guardians will start with the 2022 baseball season. It is hard to believe but in the 1970’s, there was an effort to remove the Guardians of Traffic They were called monstrosities and should be torn down and forgotten. It was meant to have a lower level but that was never completed. However, the team continues to sell merchandise bearing the smiling, red-faced caricature that was protested for decades by Native American and anti-racism groups. The bridge is about a mile in length, was opened in 1932 and connects downtown with Ohio City. In 2018, the Indians stopped wearing the Chief Wahoo logo on their jerseys and caps. Together, we are all… /R5FnT4kv1I- Cleveland Indians July 23, 2021
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