Indians name change: WFNY Staff Chat

gerbs – With word coming out before the Fourth of July that the Cleveland Indians are “holding conversations to determine the best path forward with regard to their team name”, we got to spend the holiday weekend workshopping new names for the Cleveland baseball team. So what are your 1) best realistic guesses as what the name would change to and 2) ideal name, realistic or not?

mgbode – No Spiders. Lots of people hate Spiders, the team history of that Cleveland team is bad, and Marvel/Sony hold the rights to all the cool graphics for it.

mitchell – What about the Lake Erie Midges? It’s not imposing and it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but you maintain the bug theme, name it after something unique to the city, and it’s a constant reminder of a great moment in team history.

gerbs – That works if you wanna get minor league with it. Being a pro team, it has to have an air about it, which I feel Spiders or Guardians (the other expected name if you only ask Twitter) do, even though Guardians has that _The Replacements_ feel to it.

davesterling – My wife had the idea a few years ago that we could save some time and money and call ourselves the Cleveland Indianans. What is more fierce than someone from Carmel, In

mgbode – Rapids makes reference to Bob Feller, the transport some use to get to the game, and if you really stretch it, then the Cuyahoga River too. Personally, I would prefer Fellers if we had to change the name, but I am alone on an island there.

OKPants design had proposed the Buzzards with a ton of good work on the concept in the past.

https://t.co/GqOswu4Pc3 pic.twitter.com/m48ynHtg1w

— okpants (@okpants) March 28, 2019

wfnycraig – I’d be fine with Guardians or Buzzards. I’m kind of over this whole thing. Just do what you’re going to do quickly. The delay and foot-dragging on Wahoo was like an incurable headache we were forced to live with for a long time. The irony is that the Indians were nervous to lose fans, but their slow reaction caused fans to endure non-baseball controversy for a long time. Do you think that wore some people out?

andrew – I’m all for the name change, it’s fine with me. But I just really hope they don’t mess this up and give us a corny name and/or cheesy logo. I like Rapids, Guardians, Buzzards. They’re all fine names. I think Fellers would be cool as well. What if we offer Frankie to name the team the Lindors if he agrees to stay?

wfnycraig – Change the name every time you have a star player. How long would we have kept the name Cleveland Victors for Victor Martinez? Cleveland Klubers. Cleveland Mannys would have been weird.

andrew – Cleveland Pronks would have had a nice ring to it.

gerbs – I am on record as being pro Spiders, but Guardians and/or Buzzards would also be acceptable for me. It’s just hard to not totally eff this up with something random and not culturally cohesive to Cleveland.

davesterling – Nothing with rock and roll.

joshpoloha – I think I’m out on Spiders. Has nothing to really do with Cleveland and most people hate them anyways. The Guardians would be a cool look but I’m down with that or anything that has to do with the lake or river. Just make it something cool, is all I ask. Not something that gives other people an easy way to hate on Cleveland even more.

mgbode – Blues was original NL Cleveland team name (became Spiders). Would play well with Reds in Cinci and blues riffs are part of rock-n-roll (sorry, Dave), but still feels a bit generic.

Lightning Round:

Eliminating some common ones first…

• Woolies – Woolie bullies and mammoths, but the name itself is a tad weird and coming up with a good-looking logo is problematic. Apologies to the UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, but that type of shape doesn’t belong on a cap.
• Forest Cities – Doesn’t sound like a sport team (even though it once was). Burning Rivers – The sport team of a city should not be a constant reminder of a black-eye in the city’s history.
• Crooked Rivers – Better but way too many syllables. Rapids works better here.
• Coasters – Bleh… a name that also means not living up to your potential?
• Rockers – Nope. Name was done before and while the HoF is certainly in the city, it’s not really the identity of the fans.

Now, for a few that I haven’t seen considered, but I like…

• Stingers – 500 bee species in Ohio but Stingers sounds more fun.
• Cranes – Birds make great names/logos. It’s why I think Buzzards (though don’t have to use the WMMS mascot) is likely the absolute best Cleveland-connection name. The sandhill cranes are a beautiful bird though, native to NEO, and you get alliteration in the name.
• Owls – See bird reason above… you also get a bird of prey here and it is an under-used generic name. Except, unlike spiders, people actually like owls.

andrew – I really, really hate the Spiders name. Not just because they had a bad history or that it was an entirely different franchise, but mostly because I just think it’s a dumb name. It’s a bug. Most people hate spiders in real life. I just think it’s all around bad.

Of the names I’ve heard suggested, the one I like the most are, in no order: Fellers (I’ll die on that hill with Bode), Guardians (especially if we can get that Guardians of the Galaxy tie-in…I’m here for Groot and Rocket mascots roaming around the stadium), Blues, Rapids, Owls (Bode sold me on this above)

gerbs – I’m fine dying on the Spiders hill alone, the logo/t-shirt TJ Zuppe posted looks good as hell, and spiders are scary as hell. I don’t want a funny name, I don’t want to minor league it up and be silly. Guardians is probably what just will be. The more I hear Rapids, I can get behind it. Blues, Owls…I don’t hate them. Fellers is just a sillier Rapids.

wfnycraig – I am also anti-spiders just because I think it’s infantile. That said, I’ll support the Cleveland baseball team and I know I’ll get used to whatever it is. I still think The Land is meh, but I’m over it.

gerbs – If it’s Cleveland Rocks, I’m done with baseball.

wfnycraig – Like actually? Frankie London at the plate in the World Series for the Rocks and you’re our? Good news though. I don’t think the Rocks and Rockies can both be in the same sport.

gerbs – It’s hokey, it’s dumb, and I just don’t like it. Forgive me for wanting a little bit of seriousness in these proceedings, but Rocks is what you’d come up with after pulling away from the bong.

mgbode – Either Rocks or Spiders after pulling way 😉

coreybarnes – I’ve always liked Cleveland Blizzard for a hockey team but I don’t think it works for the Boys of Summer.

gerbs – Look at this shirt and tell me that’s not a great logo

mgbode – It is not a great logo. Terrible, in fact. My daughters won’t wear those.

You want to be inclusive, then you shouldn’t have a name of something people tend to either hate or be fearful of.

andrew – Yeah, I don’t like that as a logo at all. I wouldn’t wear that shirt