Cleveland‘s Major League Baseball team announced its rebranding
as the Guardians as it drops the more than century-old moniker of the Indians,
which Native Americans and other critics saw as racist.

The team made the announcement that it would dump the name
it has used since 1915 in a video narrated by Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks. The
change will take effect after the 2021 season ends.

“It has always been Cleveland that is the best part of
our name,” Hanks says in the video, which describes the Ohio city as proud
of its sports heritage and eager to protect it.

“And now it’s time to unite as one family, one
community — to build the next era for this team and this city,” Hanks
continues in the video.

“This is the city we love. And the game we believe in.
And together we are all Cleveland Guardians,” it says, unveiling the new
team logo, with music in the background from the Black Keys, a rock band formed
in nearby Akron.

Cleveland’s MLB outfit is the latest in a series of
professional or university sports teams in the United States to yield to public
pressure over offensive names and logos — ditching ones such as Redskins,
Savages or Redmen — amid a national reckoning about racism and discrimination.

The most prominent name-changing case prior to this was the
Washington team in the NFL, which in 2020 dumped the nickname Redskins and its
Indian head logo. The team has yet to settle on a new name.

The team first announced last summer that it would talk to
community members and Native American groups about the possibility of a name
change. In December, it formally said it would drop “Indians” and
started a search for a new nickname.

As part of this process, more than 40,000 fans were
surveyed.

The new name Guardians reflects a bit of local lore —
so-called Guardians of Traffic carved into pylons at either end of a bridge
over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.

The team’s colours will remain the same, and the new logos
will incorporate some of the architectural features of the bridge.

Native American groups welcomed the name change.

“With today’s announcement, the Cleveland baseball team
has taken another important step forward in healing the harms its former mascot
long caused Native people, in particular Native youth,” AFP quoted the president
of the National Congress of American Indians Fawn Sharp as saying.

In 2018, the Indians stopped using the controversial Chief
Wahoo logo on their jerseys and caps. However, the team continues to sell
merchandise bearing the smiling, red-faced caricature.

US politicians were divided over the decision, with the
White House giving its support but twice-impeached former president Donald
Trump
berating the team.

“Can anybody believe that the Cleveland Indians, a
storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are
changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace,” Trump said.