Grady is the caretaker

I picked Grady Sizemore to be the AL Comeback Player of the Year in my preseason predictions and so far that is looking pretty solid.

But I am officially intrigued by this Indians team. First of all they are in first place with an eye popping 12-4 record.

Secondly they have come into the home park of another surprising team, the Royals, and won a solid extra inning affair to make it 4 in a row.

What if...?
Could they...?
Is Grady Sizemore the spark this team needs?

Yeah it is early, but we all kept saying "It's early" with the 2006 Tigers and the 2008 Rays until they were in the World Series!

I am just glad they are playing fewer and fewer games with the Chief Wahoo hats.

For the second year in a row, I am writing about the Indians hats

Last year I asked the Indians to just PICK A HAT! They had so many varying caps last year that I wondered if they were going to change hats in mid game.

So what was the Indians' solution?
THEY CAME UP WITH ANOTHER HAT!

Now I still think that they should go back to the "Tomahawk C" cap that they wore in the 1970s.

It is distinct, it brings out the Native American theme and yet doesn't have a crazy racist image on it.

And yeah... sorry... I'm not the most politically correct person you will ever meet... but Chief Wahoo is kinda sorta racist.

I personally don't find the NAME Indians to be racist nor do I think the Indians should change the name.

But the logo is dated and should go. And I must say, these new red caps are kind of cool.

I still think the C is a little boring, but hey! They've tried everything else. Why not a boring C, a red cap and an off white uniform?

Maybe THAT will help the Indians win.
OK, after seeing their pitching the last few days, they maybe need more than a new cap. But if they are going to be get their butts kicked, they might as well sport an inoffensive cap.

Their pitching is offensive enough.

Hey Indians! How about picking a cap?

Look, I understand that marketing is king.
I understand the powers that be in MLB want to have baseball fans buying merchandise left and right... and if they bought a hat, they need to buy the alternate hat.

If they bought the jersey, they should by an away jersey... or the batting practice jersey... or the Turn Back The Clock jersey... or the St. Patrick's Day jersey... or the team name in Spanish jersey.

But could there be a LITTLE uniformity in the uniform?

It's mid April and the Indians have already worn 5 different hats in regular season games. And with three different logos.

I wouldn't be surprised if they changed hats midway through the game.

Couldn't they make their hat variations around a single logo?

And frankly I have issues with each logo.

There's
THE CURSIVE UPPER CASE I

They seem to love this one as it also appears on some of their 48 different uniforms.

But I don't like it because when I see a letter on a hat, I think it means the name of the city.

And the I could mean the Indianapolis Indians. And in fact there IS a minor league team called the Indianapolis Indians. And guess what team they are affiliated with?

The Pirates, not the Indians. It's all very confusing. I'd rather they dump this hat.

There's
THE KIND OF RACIST CHIEF WAHOO HAT

A reader named PJ commented on an earlier post I did on uniforms that my calling the Chief Wahoo logo racist meant that I had some white guilt. Later he questioned if I thought the University of North Dakota's mascot was racist.

And he so very lovely wrote "Stop being ignorant and get educated."

Thanks for the tip, PJ.

First of all, no. I don't think the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname is racist. It is a regional name and those Sioux could fight. And the logo is a depiction of a warrior. So no... I don't find that to be racist.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the name "Indians" either. Supposedly they were called the Indians to honor former Cleveland star Louis Sockalexis.

The logo itself is a grotesque stereotype. It is a cartoony depiction of the Native American race... not a warrior picture like UND.

But let's give a better example of why I don't like this logo.
Let's say there was a team called the Ninjas or the Samurai and its logo was either a Ninja or a Samurai swinging a bat. That would be cool.

Let's say there was another team called The Orientals and THIS was their logo.
I can safely call that logo kinda sorta offensive.

I'm sorry. It's 2010. I'm not the most PC guy in the world, but Chief Wahoo has to go.


There's
THE COMPLETELY UNOFFENSIVE AND BLAND BLOCK CAPITAL C

That's one way to deal with a politically incorrect hat. Take it down the route of a simple traditional cap.

It is kind of a dull hat. It could be any college baseball team's hat.

And it would be fine if it were an accurate representation of one of the Indian hats of their glory years... but I couldn't find an era of Indians history where they wore those caps.

They kind of resemble the hats from the 1920s, but not exactly. The hats they wore in the 40s, 50s and 60s resembled the Cincinnati Reds hats. So it seems unnecessarily dull.


There is a solution... one that can take Chief Wahoo off the cap, make people know it isn't an Indianapolis hat and harken back to an earlier day in Indians history.

Bring back the Tomahawk C hat!

That was the coolest hat the Indians ever had!

It kind of had that hard Tomahawk edge to it... had the Indians colors... wasn't boring... wasn't racist... and clearly was for Cleveland!

Man, this post took an odd turn.

I wanted the Indians to cut back on their cap logos... and here I am demanding a 4th one.