Cleveland Guardians’ name could be better, could be worse

Time will tell if Indians fans who dislike the franchise’s choice of Guardians for the new team name will ever take to it.

They have no choice, obviously, because that’s the nickname going forward when the 2021 season is in the books.

But they do have a choice when it comes to buying tickets to games, and that’s where Indians team owner Paul Dolan had better hope angry fans — and they seem pretty much split down the middle on the issue judging by social media reaction — embrace Guardians sooner rather than later.

Because if it’s later, well … let’s not go there just yet.

The new name, of course, comes from the two Guardians of Traffic statues on Cleveland’s Hope Memorial Bridge, not far from Progressive Field. They’re actually in the opening shot of the 1989 movie Major League, and they’ve been in existence since 1932.

Even with all that, however, there seemed to be better options for the new name. Which, of course, will be discussed, debated, argued about, and, again judging by social media reaction, politicized to within an inch of its life, like everything else in America right now.

I mean, we can’t make a move without politicizing it, can we? Sports are politicized. Illnesses are politicized. Vaccines are politicized. Education is politicized. History is politicized. Flags and national anthems are politicized. Even the weather — the weather — is politicized.

And that’s what this name change thing is really about. Politics. One side loves the change and says the other side is racist. The other side hates it and says the first side is fascist.

That’s where we are: We have all become verbal bomb-throwers if someone disagrees with us. There is no room for civil discourse. There is no room for compromise. There is no room for the open exchange of ideas. You either agree with someone, or they will carve you like a Thanksgiving turkey. I would say I mean that only figuratively, but I’m not sure I do.

Sports used to be the one port where you could take safe haven from the storm. It was our escape from the evils and horrors of real life, a chance to get lost in watching our favorite team for a few hours while the world went to hell in a handbasket around us. Sports kept us balanced.

Not anymore. Sports have been dragged into the political sewer with everything else, and we’re all caught in the cesspool with it.

It’s gotten to the point where Americans are rejoicing the defeat of the United States men’s basketball team and women’s soccer team in the Tokyo Olympics. Rejoicing because there are sharp differences politically between many of the U.S. athletes and the American fans watching the Games.

We no longer even see ourselves as Americans, really. We are Democrats first. We are Republicans first. We have become so polarized that we don’t want to breathe the same air as someone who disagrees with us. Our mindset is such that if someone doesn’t see something the way we do, they are wrong and by definition are a terrible person, richly deserving of the worst treatment that can possibly be bestowed upon another human being.

Nobody with two brain cells to rub together — and there are a frightening number of people in the gene pool who seem not to possess that capability — thinks this is going to end well. For either side. We seem to be in a societal free fall, with too many people more interested in being right than doing the right thing. It takes courage to do the right thing, but unfortunately courage is in short supply these days. As are tolerance and understanding.

Fans who dislike the name change and the idea of changing the name altogether are not racists. They like the name Indians. They grew up with it. It’s part of their identity and the identity of Cleveland. It’s nostalgic for them. They grew up loving the Cleveland Indians. They didn’t grow up relishing some notion that they were getting a chance to disparage an entire race of people. The idea that rooting for a team with a particular name means you hate an entire group of people is ludicrous to them. It’s a universe-sized leap to link one to the other. In fact, they see the name as honoring that group, not denigrating it.

By the same token, fans who do like the name change and the fact that the Indians moniker was ditched are not fascists. They are uncomfortable with the basic idea of using ethnicities as team names, period. They argue that we wouldn’t call our Major League team the Cleveland Caucasians, with a logo right out of Hee-Haw (although, let’s be honest, University of Nebraska mascot Herbie Husker comes awfully close). They point out that there are plenty of nicknames available that aren’t perceived as insensitive by the race or ethnicity a name represents.

But it’s easier to defame someone’s character if they don’t agree with you rather than take the time and listen to their reasoning. The latter requires maturity, something else that is on life support in America these days. Rather than try to find common ground, we try to find new ways to eviscerate those who possess differing points of view.

This doesn’t mean everyone has to sit around a campfire, hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” while someone strums an acoustic guitar. We don’t have to like someone else’s opinion. We can strongly disagree with their point of view. We can even be angered by it.

The same way we’re allowed to have strong feelings one way or the other about Guardians, or the name change itself, without being equated to Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler.

Me? I don’t care for the name. It just doesn’t resonate with me. I also feel that the Indians’ brass could have managed the situation better, maybe open a fan vote campaign and then have management choose the name from three finalists, thus giving fans ownership in the new name.

The team also could have worked more closely with Native American organizations to perhaps save the Indians name or at least modify it to make the situation workable, the way many universities have with their sports programs. The way it went down seems knee-jerk at best and caving under pressure at worst. Maybe nothing would have come from such outreach efforts, but the optics of changing the name in the current political climate give the appearance that Dolan took the path of least resistance.

So there it is. I’m not a fan of Guardians, I think ditching a team name that had been in place since 1915 could have been handled better, and I understand Dolan was going to anger half his fan base whether he changed the name or not.

Let the bomb throwing begin.