Tuesday, July 27, 2021

The Spiders are Dead, Long Live the Guardians

 I post an awful lot about Indian mascots. Last Winter I posted about Cleveland Baseball's decision to drop their racist name and search for a new one. Well... search they did, and they found one. Please welcome the new Cleveland mascot, the .... 


At first it seems pretty lame. If you remember, before the Indians, Cleveland's baseball team was the Spiders. There was plenty of speculation the franchise would go back to the Spiders moniker. Instead they chose this nonsense. It sounds awkward. 

I looked into it though. It makes sense for Cleveland. Way more sense than using a Native mascot. In 1932, Henry Herring and Frank Walker built a bridge across the Cuyahoga River. The bridge itself isn't very memorable, but at the ends stand four giant statues. These statues represent the progress of transportation, and each hold a mode of transportation representing that progress, from hay wagon to automobile. 

These statues are known as the Guardians of Transportation. And there you have it.... the Cleveland baseball team has officially partnered with the Ohio Department of Transportation.  

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