One man is conspicuously absent from the Cleveland Indians’ 25-man postseason roster.
In fact, the longtime MVP has pretty much been relegated to a much smaller role on the team’s left sleeve and on the home game caps.
When the team’s official Central Division championship gear was distributed in the visitors’ locker room in a post-clinching celebration in Detroit, Chief Wahoo was nowhere to be seen.
The Indians publicly say Wahoo is still an important member of the team, but you have to look long and hard to find him in the public areas of Progressive Field.
“We are very cognizant and sensitive to both sides of the conversation — our fans’ deep, long-lasting attachment to the memories associated with Chief Wahoo and those who are opposed to its use,” said Curtis Danburg, the team’s senior director of communications. “We continue to research our fan base to better understand their perception and stance on the logo, but at present time have no plans of making a change. We continued to have the Wahoo logo represented on our uniforms and home cap during the 2016 season.”
The grinning depiction of an American Indian chief can be found here and there, but he is pretty much relegated to historic photos or a banner and forever immortalized in bronze outside the ballpark on the uniforms on the statues of Larry Doby and Jim Thome.
And you would have to be an Indians employee or a member of the media to see the large Chief Wahoo flag that once flew proudly over the old Municipal Stadium.
The flag, along with a plaque telling how it was given to the crew of the USS Cleveland in 1993 and returned to the team in 2006 in a ceremony honoring team legend and Navy veteran Bob Feller, hang on a wall in a tunnel deep in the bowels of the ballpark.
He’s even getting hard to find in the team’s gift shop.
There are 32 different Tribe-logo sweatshirts displayed across an expansive wall just inside the team’s main gift shop. Just seven of the sweatshirts have the latest incarnation of Chief Wahoo on them.
The lack of Chief Wahoo on the shelves was not lost on longtime fan Michael Skocz.
“Keep Chief Wahoo,” said Skocz, a South Omaha, Neb., resident. “We don’t buy anything Cleveland Indians unless it has Chief Wahoo on it.”
His father once worked in Cleveland so he grew up rooting for the team some 12 hours away.
He publicly wears his love for Chief Wahoo on his sleeve with a Wahoo arm tattoo sleeve, on a T-shirt and a temporary tattoo on his cheek. He even has a Chief Wahoo on his tennis shoes and socks.
“You gotta go big or go home,” he said.
It is this public display of what some call a racist depiction of American Indians that disheartens the likes of Phil Yenyo.
Sole dissenter
The spokesperson for the Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance and the director of the American Indian Movement in Ohio showed up with signs to hand out to fellow protesters at the opening game of the American League Division Series in Cleveland on Thursday. Instead, he was the sole dissenter.
Life circumstances and even parking issues kept the protesters away.
“I’m disappointed,” Yenyo said later.
He remembers the raucous protests of the past where Tribe fans hurled insults and the protesters burned Chief Wahoo in effigy. But the fight to keep Chief Wahoo and the Tribe name off the field is too important of a battle to give up now.
“The team is making some progress,” he conceded. “But they have to change the name, too. This is not just about the logo.”
Yenyo said the logo and team name are offensive on many levels, not just to American Indians.
He said those who wear an American Indian headdress to a game probably have little idea of its significance, down to the red feather representing a lost loved one.
“How would they like it if I desecrated a cross?” the activist from Solon wondered.
Indians fan Karley Stackhouse wore such an American Indian headdress to a recent postseason game.
“I bought it at a Halloween store for a wild card game a few years ago,” the Zanesville resident said. “I’m not a big fan of [Chief Wahoo] not being on the uniform. I’m a big fan of Chief Wahoo and the team’s history.”
A fan of the logo
Perhaps there’s no bigger Chief Wahoo fan than Jim Stamper of Cleveland.
He’s the guy on TV usually standing down the third-base line behind the team’s dugout in a white tuxedo jacket with a flashing Chief Wahoo in writing on the back and carrying a muscled, grinning Wahoo sign, usually with a witty message.
Stamper can be a hard guy to talk to because he is constantly asked to pose for pictures with eager Tribe fans looking for the perfect selfie to post on social media.
“As long as it is making the team money, he is not going anywhere,” Stamper said. “And if they were ever to get rid of Chief Wahoo, it would be more popular than it is now.
“It would open a whole can of worms.”
From Yenyo’s perspective, he can’t imagine the logo getting any more popular.
He said it is hard to escape the racist symbol from the hats to the shirts to the car commercials to signs in bars and restaurants.
“It is just everywhere,” he said. “I have this smiling symbol of racism in front of me all the time.”
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.