Sports

The new Cleveland Guardians logo is displayed on a screen next to art work, Friday, July 23, 2021, in Cleveland. [AP Photo | Tony Dejak]

Cleveland Will Play Its Last Home Baseball Game Under The Current Name

By: L. Carol Ritchie | NPR
Posted on: Monday, September 27, 2021

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CLEVELAND (NPR) — Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will take home field for the last time under its current name this afternoon.

The team has been known as the Cleveland Indians since 1915 but announced in 2020 that it would drop that name, which Indigenous activists fought for years to change.

The team plays six more road games before the season — and era — ends and its name changes to the Cleveland Guardians.

The new name is a tribute to the iconic Guardians of Traffic statues on the bridge over the Cuyahoga River, which leads downtown and to Progressive Field, the team’s home stadium.

Two guardians rest on the Hope Memorial Bridge within site of Progressive Field, Friday, July 23, 2021, in Cleveland. [AP Photo | Tony Dejak]

The team announced it would drop the name last December as part of its efforts to be more inclusive. It stopped using the racist Chief Wahoo cartoon on team gear in 2018. The change will become official during the offseason.

The old logo will be slow to disappear among fans, writes Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. But David C. Barnett of member station WCPN says the Guardian image is already visible around town.

“It is on T-shirts. It is on beer bottles. It is on even shower curtains,” Barnett told WBUR’s Here & Now. “It’s part of the DNA of the city.”

This story originally published in the Morning Edition live blog.