After the missteps and hullabaloo surrounding the Cleveland Indians’ Fourth of July cap, it looks like Major League baseball is taking a more cautious approach to depictions of Chief Wahoo everywhere.
Via Rob Neyer, writing for Baseball Nation, there were no Chief Wahoo caps available at All-Star Game FanFest festivities in New York City.
Neyer visited both cap displays at the MLB Clubhouse store. Both of them featured the Indians’ block-C caps (red and navy, respectively). Wrote Neyer:
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but doesn’t it seem odd that Major League Baseball’s not selling the Indians’ primary caps in the official store? I’m not saying that Chief Wahoo’s on the way out anytime soon. But it does seem that perhaps MLB is uncomfortable with the image. Not to the point of telling the Indians to stop using the damned thing. But it seems that someone in New York isn’t thrilled with it.
We ought to point out, once again, our feature story from 2012 which calls Chief Wahoo America’s “last acceptable racist symbol.”
Perhaps it’s in keeping with other trends (fashion, culture, etc.) that New York is a few years ahead of the Midwest. In five years, Wahoo might not be around at all.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2013.
Bring back the 1975 “sharp” C for the cap (blue, with red brim) – but leave the red jerseys and red pants in the attic – and be done with it. Ownership – going back to the move to he new ballpark – has taken tentative steps to phase out Chief Wahoo over the years….but not stating the obvious when tweaking uniforms.
Whatever. This is the most ridiculous debate and story ever. The block C is just being used and emphasized in anniversary and “throw back” style. The chief wahoo is awesome and not a racist symbol at all. Who makes this stuff up. It’s one of the oldest, most legendary icon and logo in sports history. If you really think about it, isn’t it really just a tribute and honor to be recognized by a city and sports franchise??!!?? You don’t name your team after something you are not supporting and honoring!!!! And it’s just a logo and those are the colors – big deal – red, white & blue – America’s colors!!! Millions more will be outraged if the wahoo ever goes away than a few you can never make happy anyway. And for the record, how come no one talks about the Chicago Blackhawks!!! I suppose that logo is unacceptable too right? Whatever. Write on some more interesting topics please.
Dave, what part about Chief Wahoo is NOT racst? Are you drunk?
It’s clear that Cleveland Sceen doesn’t actually like/follow the Indians because if they did they would know that the caps being shown in the pictures are spring training & batting practice caps only. I saw plenty of Wahoo hats on other shelfs in both New York and Cincinnati in 2015 . Piss-poor journalism… CS just trying to get click bait and push their liberal agenda.