Cleveland Indians to become the Cleveland Guardians

Sad Sam Jones

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Could have killed two birds with one stone and called them the Cleveland Lake Fires.
I wish there was at least a basic Cleveland quiz people were required to take before they could make their dumb insults. The Cuyahoga River caught fire, not Lake Erie. Also, for future reference, the "Mistake by the Lake" referred to Cleveland Stadium, which has been gone for more than a quarter of a century. FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Browns play, is located there. The Indians play over a mile away from the lake (or ocean if you're Oil Can Boyd).
 

jon abbey

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I wish there was at least a basic Cleveland quiz people were required to take before they could make their dumb insults. The Cuyahoga River caught fire, not Lake Erie. Also, for future reference, the "Mistake by the Lake" referred to Cleveland Stadium, which has been gone for more than a quarter of a century. FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Browns play, is located there. The Indians play over a mile away from the lake (or ocean if you're Oil Can Boyd).
Is the Cleveland Midges an acceptable joke?

(Yes, I’m still pissed)
 

Jim Ed Rice in HOF

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I wish there was at least a basic Cleveland quiz people were required to take before they could make their dumb insults. The Cuyahoga River caught fire, not Lake Erie. Also, for future reference, the "Mistake by the Lake" referred to Cleveland Stadium, which has been gone for more than a quarter of a century. FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Browns play, is located there. The Indians play over a mile away from the lake (or ocean if you're Oil Can Boyd).
Yes - the tie in was what local people know vs. what outsiders "know" - outside Cleveland it's believed to be the lake for many.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Guardians? What a stupid name, and an even lamer logo. I cannot believe this was their best option.
 

Preacher

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I wish there was at least a basic Cleveland quiz people were required to take before they could make their dumb insults. The Cuyahoga River caught fire, not Lake Erie. Also, for future reference, the "Mistake by the Lake" referred to Cleveland Stadium, which has been gone for more than a quarter of a century. FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Browns play, is located there. The Indians play over a mile away from the lake (or ocean if you're Oil Can Boyd).
Well, at least they have that delicious Skyline Chili.
 

ArttyG12

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That flying G logo could be great if it was a helmet instead of a ball. Make it clearer it's a reference to the head of the statue.
 

SoxJox

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The logo conjures up nothing even remotely related to what could be a guardian. You would think that if they were going to select some form of "entity:, they'd be a bit more direct with the logo.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Well, at least they have that delicious Skyline Chili.
Well played.

…As for the Flying G, until they start selling it, I'm still holding out hope they decided, "everyone is going to hate whatever we come up with, so let's just go with a placeholder and then it's replacement will automatically be well received". That generic baseball needs to go. They should have something more derivative of the statues.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Well played.

…As for the Flying G, until they start selling it, I'm still holding out hope they decided, "everyone is going to hate whatever we come up with, so let's just go with a placeholder and then it's replacement will automatically be well received". That generic baseball needs to go. They should have something more derivative of the statues.
The logo is derivative of the statues.

View: https://twitter.com/actioncookbook/status/1418572285955424256?s=20
 

Archer1979

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This thread just sent me down a Curtis Sliwa internet rabbit-hole that may require years of therapy to undo.

I was hoping for Spiders too, but some friends of mine from Cleveland love the Guardians. So who am I to judge?
 

Awesome Fossum

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Logos are easy to change; much harder is the name and colors. I think Guardians is not great but fine enough. I was pulling for Spiders, personally.

Who's up next? Blackhawks?
 

Sad Sam Jones

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I mean they should have a logo that literally represents the statues. Most people outside the region have (or at least had) no idea what Guardians references. A "G" with wings doesn't help with that and the new version of the Block C serves the purpose of a letter logo. They should scrap the G and go with a more "mascot" oriented logo instead.
 

NoXInNixon

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Within the realm of team nickname changes, it's somewhere in the middle, not the best, not the worst. My ranking: (I'm probably leaving out a few from a long, long time ago.)

Ravens
Avalanche
Titans
Astros
Guardians
Jets
Coyotes
Pelicans
Wizards
Hurricanes
.
.
.
Yankees
 

LogansDad

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Most people just don't care that much about Indiana.
Every now and then I get a gentle remind of why I love this site and spend so much time here. This is one of those moments.

I was also on board team Spiders for the history, but I think Guardians (knowing what I know now) is perfectly cromulent. I think that one thing fans outside of Cleveland should keep in mind is that the name and logo should mean something to people who live in and around Cleveland.... and not us. I think they clearly hit the mark on that one here.
 

nvalvo

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Yeah man, I still call our local nine the Americans too.

Guardians is... fine. The statues feel like a bit of an obscure reference when there's a lot to work with in Cleveland.

The font is good, but that G/baseball logo is not great.
Yeah, but the team is *in* Cleveland, where people do get the reference. What you're describing as obscurity could be just as easily called authenticity. I went to college in the area, and I recognized the reference, even if I didn't know much about it. I was like, oh cool, it's those rad WPA statues from that bridge. I looked it up: the project actually started pre-WPA.

Guardians? What a stupid name, and an even lamer logo. I cannot believe this was their best option.
As a fan (since April 2020) of the Fubon Guardians, I kind of love that Yu Chang of the newly-christened Cleveland Guardians is the younger brother of Fubon's catcher. It's a name with a baseball tradition, even if it's only 30 years of tradition in Taiwan. How old were the NY Giants when the Yomiuri Giants were named?

(I imagine they chose it for matching the scansion of Indians.)
 

SoxJox

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Who's up next?
For the love of god, ANY animal. PETA is about ready to launch a major blitz against mascots and logos that depict animals in any form. And especially against teams that have LIVE animal mascots.
Let's see, off the top of my head...

  1. The US Naval Academy of all places: Bill the Goat (I'm hoping they mean "goat" in a positive sense)
  2. Lest the US Military Academy be left out: Ranger and Stryker, of the equine variety
  3. Holy s**t, the DoD trifecta: The US Air Force Academy's falcon, presently named Aurora
  4. Oklahoma: Boomer and Sooner
  5. TAMU: the collie Reveille (great name BTW)
  6. USC: Traveler (I don't know what incarnation or generational number the current beast is, gotta be something like XI or X. I think we can forgive that he is ridden by a new-Trojan.
  7. Auburn: War Eagle
  8. FSU: Renegade. What makes this one especially egregious is that he is ridden by a Native American. I think they're on about their 4th or 5th generation.
  9. OMG...Auburn: has a f**kin' live Bengal tiger
  10. UGA: And that poor ugly sh**t of a dog "UGA". I think they must be on their [infinite] generation.
  11. [Probably my sentimental favorite, just because they're such great dogs] Tennessee's blue tick coonhound Smokey (wanna know where the motivation for Smokey and the Bandit came from?)
  12. Colorado's bison, Ralphie
  13. And, finally, no list is complete without at least some direct or indirect reference to Texas. Bevo. Well over generation X I believe.
And that's just college.

I swear, we may not even be safe with references to inanimate objects, like "rock" or "tree", lest the Geological Society of America or the Arbor Foundation rise up in protest.
 
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YTF

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I'm fine with although part of me thinks it's a logo designed to allow a-hole people who object to the change to buy new jerseys and cross out the "Guar" part and cover it with an "In" to register their protest.
A couple of thoughts. Initially my take was that it was lazy and didn't do much to distance itself from The Indians. OK, so now I see the connection and it makes sense, but they should have veered away from the old script logo. They change it slightly and presented a shitty version of the offensive version that that they want to move on from. Kudos for making the change and finding something relevant that is in close proximity to where the franchise plays. The team potentially being called The Guards by the locals rather than The Tribe is a big plus, but IMO the logos (other than the "Flying G") are too reminiscent of what you are trying to move forward from.
 

EvilEmpire

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I like the name well enough. That it references a Cleveland thing that most people outside of Cleveland don't know anything about is good.

The logo I'm not as sure about. Probably fine.
 

staz

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The cradle of the game.
Bet their #1 sponsor, Progressive, isn't thrilled they picked the name of a major competitor.

Regardless, Guardians is terrible. But terrible is about what I was expecting.
 

8slim

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Yeah, but the team is *in* Cleveland, where people do get the reference. What you're describing as obscurity could be just as easily called authenticity. I went to college in the area, and I recognized the reference, even if I didn't know much about it. I was like, oh cool, it's those rad WPA statues from that bridge. I looked it up: the project actually started pre-WPA.



As a fan (since April 2020) of the Fubon Guardians, I kind of love that Yu Chang of the newly-christened Cleveland Guardians is the younger brother of Fubon's catcher. It's a name with a baseball tradition, even if it's only 30 years of tradition in Taiwan. How old were the NY Giants when the Yomiuri Giants were named?

(I imagine they chose it for matching the scansion of Indians.)
My take was a knee-jerk bad one. I learned more about the bridge and statues as the day went on, and I grew to like it.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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At the end of the day, any name is better than the old one and any logo is going to be better than the Native American caricature they used for decades.
Lock the message board!!
This is the shit that's funny to me. Redskins, Indians, Braves, Blackhawks...Cleveland steps up and makes the right choice, and these are the only 2 posts in 3 pages not to applaud the team for making the switch. Racism and cultural appropriation are important...until the new team name isnt as super awesome as I would have wanted.

I dont care if they're the Cleveland lawnmowers, Drew Carey's, or Clef Notes. The name change is awesome, and I'm buying a hat to support it.

(I'd have liked the spiders).
 
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nvalvo

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This is the shit that's funny to me. Redskins, Indians, Braves, Blackhawks...Cleveland steps up and makes the right choice, and these are the only 2 posts in 3 pages not to applaud the team for making the switch. Racism and cultural appropriation are important...until the new team name isnt as super awesome as I would have wanted.

I dont care if they're the Cleveland lawnmowers, Drew Carey's, or Clef Notes. The name change is awesome, and I'm buying a hat to support it.

(I'd have liked the spiders).
Good call.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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This is the shit that's funny to me. Redskins, Indians, Braves, Blackhawks...Cleveland steps up and makes the right choice, and these are the only 2 posts in 3 pages not to applaud the team for making the switch. Racism and cultural appropriation are important...until the new team name isnt as super awesome as I would have wanted.

I dont care if they're the Cleveland lawnmowers, Drew Carey's, or Clef Notes. The name change is awesome, and I'm buying a hat to support it.

(I'd have liked the spiders).
They were applauded when they announced they were making the change.

ignoring other recent plaudits, you don’t have to honor someone for doing what they’re supposed to do.