Nothing about Friday night was all that staggering.
Not the announcement which came from the Cleveland Indians regarding the team’s consideration of a name change, nor the vitriol which filled the responses to it.
The team’s statement itself can be found below. While Cleveland never came right out and said a new nickname was around the corner, things seem to be pointing in that direction.
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) July 4, 2020
If you want to sift through the load of “done with this team” comments, by all means, direct yourself to the replies. I’ve already hit my quota for the weekend, but there’s plenty more social media foot stomping and boycott threats out there if you want to find any.
Overall, it seemed as if many within the fan-base were caught off guard by last night’s news, stunned that Cleveland would ever consider the idea of a new nickname.
However, nobody should honestly be that surprised by this. How could you be? The reality is this has been on the horizon for years now, and it was only a matter of time before the team finally came to terms with the fact a name change was inevitable.
Casey Drottar is a Cleveland Indians writer for Sports Illustrated. Subscribe to his podcast, or follow him on Twitter and Facebook