Posted on 08/20/2017 9:33:38 AM PDT by 11th_VA
CLEVELAND- The Cleveland Indians' gradual evolution away from the familiar Chief Wahoo mascot appears to have made its way to the baseball card industry.
Under pressure to separate itself from the age-old mascot by individuals who have made a public appeal claiming it to be offensive, the team now calls the 'Block C' its primary logo.
But baseball card companies, including Topps, which is one of the largest, have included the logo along with players' images for years.
This year, however, the card company appears not to be airbrushing the logo from the players photographs, but it seems to be intentionally shelving the logo in favor of the block C elsewhere on its cards.
A 2017 Francisco Lindor card, for example, has no reference whatsoever to the old mascot, whereas an older Charles Nagy card not only pictured Nagy with Chief Wahoo on his cap and sleeve, the mascot was imprinted on the front of the card in an oval just above his name.
Topps company executives did not return repeated calls from Fox 8 on Monday.
The Cleveland Indians are not commenting.
But Bill Panchak, the owner of Medina Sports Cards says he has seen the movement away from Chief Wahoo on recent cards and believes it to be in response to the company's relationship with Major League Baseball.
"Its been gradual because we hear about it all the time that major league baseball is trying to get them away from the Chief Wahoo logo for the past few years," said Panchak.
Topps has an official license with MLB to represent its teams and players.
Collectors have noticed too, but say it really does not impact the value of the cards to them.
Noah Mowry collects baseball cards and tells Fox 8 that he never chooses a card based on the team's logo or the mascot.
"Different players that are really good make them special, also like autographs and jersey cards, like they will put a little cut of the jersey inside the card, those are pretty special," said Mowry.
Panchak says the move away from the Chief Wahoo logo might ultimately give other collectible items greater demand because they will become harder and harder to get. The baseball cards are all about the player who is on the card and what they have been able to do.
He understands that fans have strong opinions and emotions about the mascot, but he doesn't believe collectors should be too surprised if it vanishes from baseball cards.
"You hear both sides of it but in the long run it won't affect the value of the cards at all."
Nah
Not Caucasians
Pale Faces or White Eyes or Long Knives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNkMLRJJHWw
Since the image is too dark the can shows a man from India in a business suit.
I'm not sure how that would work. Chief Wahoo is a cartoon figure. They'd have motivated fans designing their own mascots and attaching it to Indians shirts.
Cleveland Crackers.
I’m done with them injun givers.
This is just more political correctness. But they are too shy to come out and say what they are doing.
There are lots of sports teams which could be targets.
Cleveland Indians
Atlanta Braves
Washington Redskins
Kansas City Chiefs
Did I miss any Indian related names there?
But there are others too, if they are saying that sports nicknames are offensive to those whose names are used, what about these?
San Diego Padres-offensive to Catholics and religious people in general
New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Angels - same reasoning
Green Bay Packers - offensive to real meat packers
Pittsburgh Steelers - offensive to real steel workers
Dallas Cowboys - offensive to real cowboys
Minnesota Twins - offensive to real twins
And are all the animals nicknames offensive to the animals? Again, if the criteria are that nicknames are offensive, aren’t all the animal nicknames somehow offensive to the animal world?
And what about the White Sox? Is that racist?
Cleveland Failures......
“...Green Bay Packers - offensive to real meat packers...”
The Pack is named for the wood pulp paper packing industry; has nothing to do with meat packing.
Really?? I’ve always heard that the Packers were sponsored by a meat packing company in the beginning, and that was the origin of the name.
Wahoo McDaniel! So cool.
Just search it. The original team sponsor was the Indian Packing Company which was a meat processing outfit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Branding
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Packing_Company
I did search it, which confirmed what I had always heard. I don’t know where that other person came up with Packers not having anything to do with meat packing.
Chief Wahoo McDaniels says this bad wampum.
RIP Chief.
5.56mm
Yep... I’ve also ‘known’ things that have turned out to be plain wrong. I try not to do that, especially here.
I have had that experience too.
Well, to paraphrase whoever originated the saying, we are entitled to opinions, but not entitled to our own facts. The facts of a situation should not be in question, though opinions of something will be all over the spectrum.
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