Cleveland ‘Guardians’ Just Exposed Atlanta Braves And Their Chopping And Chanting Even More

The Guardians?

Well, um.

Whatever marketing person for Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team placed that into motion toward becoming a substitute for “Indians” should have been fired on the spot. Then again, this overall name change announced Friday by executives of the soon-to-be-arriving (ahem) Guardians was mostly good.

The same goes for the Washington Football Team, formerly known as the Redskins, joining those executives of the soon-to-be-gone Indians last summer after George Floyd’s murder in declaring they would rid their franchises of anything having to do with Native American imagery.

So, with the rest of the sports universe entering the 21st century along those racial lines, the folks who run the Atlanta Braves continue to embarrass themselves by staying in the 19th century, and they couldn’t care less.

They really couldn’t.

They flaunt it. They’re doing so in what was The Cradle of the Civil Rights movement, the home to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Mecca featuring a significant middle class among African Americans and what supposedly is The New South instead of the other one that was into things such as having a bunch of white people gather to flaunt racial stereotypes.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

Ohh, Ohhhhhh

Ohhhhhh.

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ohhhhh, it’s like this: Even though Braves officials claim they’ll never change their name (as is also the case for the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida State Seminoles), you would think Braves officials would at least urge Atlanta fans to end their 30-year practice of yelling that tomahawk chant while doing that tomahawk chop during home games.

Instead, Braves officials encourage all of that. I live in the Atlanta area, and I see everything I just typed after I enter The Battery, the Braves’ $1.1 billion complex that features restaurants, shops and other places, including Truist Park, where the Braves play. That combination helped Forbes rank their franchise 11th at $1.875 billion in 2021 team valuations of Major League Baseball teams.

This is typical at Braves games: With the home team rallying, and with the visitors making a pitching change during a recent trip to Truist Park, I looked at the video screen. I saw a digital tomahawk going up and down to the sound of a steady drum beat over the public address system. Then I saw the ballpark, filled with mostly white fans, become a sea of hands, mimicking the chopping on the screen and sounding like we were in the middle of a bad western from the 1930s.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

Ohh, Ohhhhhh

Ohhhhhh.

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

Seconds later, after Braves officials ended the digital chopping on the screen and the study drumbeat over the speakers, they blasted this song, presumably for those of us appalled by the chopping and the chanting:

I don’t care, I love it

I don’t care, I love it, I love it

I don’t care, I love it

I don’t care, I love it, I love it

I don’t care

I love it.

Was it a coincidence Braves officials played that 2012 song called “I love it” by Icona Pop at that moment, right after the chopping and the chanting they inpsired caused some of us to roll our eyes?

Doubtful.

Here’s a bigger question: If this is such a principled stance for Braves officials, why don’t they have the guts to tell people the reason they flaunt their negative depiction of Native Americans, you know, no matter what most people outside of their little world think?

Braves officials won’t answer questions from local or national media about why they insist on remaining the anti-Indians (Guardians)/Redskins (Washington Football Team) franchise.

They won’t even return messages on the subject.

I know. As I’ve watched months turn into more than a year of seeking a response from the Braves’ designated spokesperson on the position of the franchise on the name, the chop and the chant in the midst of a changing society, I’ve been like everybody else in the media trying to do so.

I’ve gotten no response.

While Braves officials refused to defend the indefensible regarding their mocking of Native American (the word “cowards” come to mind), they lost the chance to host the Baseball All-Star Game this summer. Commissioner Rob Manfred moved it to Denver after Georgia’s Republican governor signed the mostly Republican state legislature’s bill that restricts and hinders voting in the state — with a striking emphasis on African American districts around Atlanta.

Then there is the Braves’ mediocrity in the standings. Despite a roster loaded with talent and a team picked before the season as one of the contenders to reach the 2021 World Series, the Braves rank with the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers as the only franchise never to have a winning record at any point this year.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh

Ohh, Ohhhhhh

Ohhhhhh.

Oh.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh

To paraphrase what my grandmother used to say, the baseball gods don’t like ugly, and they aren’t fond of cowards.