The social justice warriors
(SJWs) were out in full force during the American League Championship Series.
You know, the people who tell you what opinion to have on a topic and then call
you a bigot, a racist or an intolerant if you choose not to fall in line with
that opinion. And this week’s topic of choice was the name of the baseball team
in Cleveland, the Indians.
The SJWs told us that the use of
the word “Indians” was derogatory and offensive to Native peoples throughout
North American (although most people in Cleveland were unaware of any offensive
connotations the team supposedly had—it seemed to be a Canada thing) and one
even had the hilarious mindset to take the team to court in order to prevent
them from using their name and logo during the ALCS. (Thankfully, the judge
didn’t cave in to the liberal foolishness and had some common sense on the
issue.)
Now, rather than just make some
Trump-like statement and say something like, “I’m continuing to use the word ‘Indians’
and I don’t care who I offend,” I decided to do some research, something I wish
more politically correct people would take the time to do. And in doing said
research, something I encourage everyone to do rather than allow themselves to
be spoon-fed by left-wing propaganda news mediums, I discovered that the
Cleveland baseball club decided to use the name ‘Indians’ as a token of respect
and honour towards Native Americans.
Let me indulge you.
Cleveland had a history of
baseball before the Indians. There were several professional teams that existed
for a few years here and there between 1869 and 1884. But in 1887, the first
long-term team, the Cleveland Spiders joined the American Association and would
play until 1899.
Then in 1901, when the American
League became a Major League, Cleveland had a team nicknamed the Bluebirds.
They changed their name to the Broncos in 1902, then to the Naps (after their
star player Napoleon Lajoie), and finally to the Indians in 1915.
And why did they change their
name to Indians in 1915? No, it wasn’t out of disrespect to Native Peoples, it
was in honour of them. And to prove this, we have to go back to the Cleveland
Spiders.
In the final three years of the
existence of the Spiders (1897-99), there was a Spiders’ player by the name of
Louis Sockalexis. Records from the American Association are cloudy but
according to baseball-reference.com, Sockalexis played 94 games for the Spiders
over three seasons, had a batting average of .313, hit three home runs, had 55
RBIs and 16 stolen bases (although no stolen base numbers are recorded in 1898
or 1899).
Now to the good part. Sockalexis
was born on the Penobscot reservation in Maine in 1871. His grandfather was
Chief of the Bear Clan in the Penobscot tribe. He is identified as the first
Native American to play in Major League Baseball. It was reported that
Sockalexis had the arm strength to throw a baseball across the Penobscot River
from Indian Island to Old Town, Maine.
While with the Spiders, the team
was given the nickname “Indians” by the locals to honour Sockalexis and
acknowledge the importance of his place in history, being the first Native to
play in the Big Leagues was kind of a big deal. And when it came time for the
American League team in Cleveland to adopt a new name, “Indians” was chosen in
order to continue honouring the contributions Sockalexis made to baseball,
American and the Penobscot tribe.
So now, 100 years later, we have
some out there who think that they will tell the rest of us how offensive the
name “Indians” is, perhaps to make them themselves appear more politically correct,
or think that they’re socially better by jumping on this bandwagon(?), while at
the same time dishonouring the memory and accomplishment of Louis Sockalexis.
You know, it’s sometimes best to
do some research before jumping to conclusions.
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