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I see Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians racist mascot, is trending again.
I bashed away at the Chief throughout the 90s, to no avail. I did, however, cost the paper its Indians press passes!
I bashed away at the Chief throughout the 90s, to no avail. I did, however, cost the paper its Indians press passes!
It's worth noting the loathsome Irish family that owns the Indians was ordered by the MLB to get rid of Wahoo. They wouldn't have done it otherwise. Had the team been the Irishmen and the mascot a drunken leprechaun, it would have been gone decades ago.
Officially mothballed and banned from official team use, it's still widely available on souvenir gear. You can bet it makes the Dolans a shitload of money.
Much like Confederate Lost Causers, Indians supporters constructed a whole bullshit mythology to justify Wahoo. Mainly he was meant to "honor" Louis Sockalexis, a native American player who played in Cleveland for 100 games over 3 seasons in the late 1890s.
It's bullshit. Firstly, SOME honor. Secondly, Sockalexis was with the Cleveland Spiders, a NATIONAL League team that predated the AL Indians.
That would be akin to the Mets in 1962 calling themselves the NY Babe Ruthers.
That would be akin to the Mets in 1962 calling themselves the NY Babe Ruthers.
The 1899 Spiders are the single worst team in baseball history. Stripped of talent by a corrupt owner, they went a jawdropping 20-134 and were basically run out of town.
The following year, the AL franchise started, as the Lakeshores. They became the Indians in 1915.
The following year, the AL franchise started, as the Lakeshores. They became the Indians in 1915.
Sockalexis was a mediocre ballplayer with a bad drinking problem. He blew out his knee while climbing out a whorehouse window during a police raid. Just the kind of player who want to build a team in honor of.
His is a tragic story. He was relentlessly taunted by opposing fans and subjected to non-stop racism every where he turned, especially by sportswriters. After baseball, he returned to the reservation and was dead at age 42 of TB.
The Indians were so named by a contest in the Cleveland newspaper. The inspiration was likely the 1914 Boston Braves, the "Miracle Braves" who went from last place in July to World Series Champs. Fans hoped for good karma for aping their team name.
It had nothing to do with Sockalexis, who was completely forgotten by 1915. When sociologist Ellen Staurowsky combed through the organization's promotional material archives, she found no mention of Sockalexis until 1968!
Wahoo didn't appear until the 1930s, as a tiny margin cartoon in the newspaper. There was a popular newspaper comic strip called The name was pilfered from the syndicated comic strip “Big Chief Wahoo” that ran from 1936 to 1947.
The long-lasting bright-red version first appeared in 1950, designed by a staff cartoonist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
When I joined the art staff of the PD in 1986, they still had an old sports cartoonist. He drew daily Wahoo cartoons during the season. If they won, Wahoo would run around woo-wooing. If they lost, he'd have a black eye and broken feathers. It was fucking surreal!
A few months later, the paper banned Wahoo, and was blasted by sportstalkers and outraged fans. Wahoo was still plastered all over Indians ads in the sports section though. So it was all posturing.
This 1998 cartoon in the Cleveland weekly rag really whipped the Wahoo lovers into a froth. I still like this one.
But the weekly paper, mainly me, was the only local entity raising a complaint about Wahoo. Other media said nothing, only covering the annual opening day protests by Native Americans. Made it really hard to be a baseball fan in this town. This famous photo sums it all up.
All through the 90s, then the 2000s, then the Teens and fucking Wahoo lived on.
Later came the De-Chiefing Movement, which was brilliant. Fans would tear off the Wahoo patch on the Indians gear, badly, so the outline remained, as a protest. I endured a couple bug-eyed spit-flying rants from Indians fans because of my De-Chiefed hat. Still wear it sometimes.
It became a big polarizing issue in this town. A glimpse of what lay ahead: the rise of Trump, his Very Fine People, and the Karens.
And now here we are, back again. Just completely mothball Wahoo, from EVERYthing. It's a civic embarrassment that has gone on far too long. No more souvenirs. It'll take 20 years for all the gear out there to rot away.
