Palm Beach attorney Les Evans says Cleveland Indians name change will "erase history for some woke political correctness" - Palm Beach Post
Les Evans: 'Lifetime connection' at stake
| Special to The PostCome 2022, the Cleveland Indians won't be called the Indians anymore. But Palm Beach attorney Les Evans, who's lived a life of loyalty to the franchise, isn't sure he's ready to ever call them anything different.
"Cleveland has suffered through some troubling times, and I am a Clevelander and will always be a Clevelander, but it would hurt for (the name) being changed for political correctness that is fashionable now," said the 73-year-old who was born one year before the Indians' last World Series title in 1948. "If changed, it would be supporting a business owner rather than a lifetime connection, and it would probably affect my loyalty and connection."
That connection always has been as strong as the biting winds that blast off Lake Erie. And Evans grew up embracing that chill. His parents, Wilbur and Esther Evans, were part owners of the Indians from 1952-56, buying their shares in the team from Hall of Famer Bill Veeck. His uncle, Nate Dolin, was the team's vice president. And his grandmother, Rose Kossoff, born in 1890, was a 64-year-old savant of Indians knowledge by the time her beloved team won the 1954 American League pennant and played the New York Giants in the World Series.
After watching Willie Mays steal Game 1 of that series on TV with his iconic over-the-shoulder catch, a 7-year-old Evans sat anxiously in his family's box seats next to the Indians dugout at venerable Cleveland Stadium for Games 3 and 4 as the Giants completed the sweep.
Among Evans' prized possessions from one of those games are a '54 AL champions pennant and a game program, which just happens to feature the Chief Wahoo logo that would become so controversial years later.
"Chief Wahoo was not there originally and is a troubling symbol, but you have to put it into historic context," Evans said. "It was never meant to be demeaning."
Evans says he has invested too much of his soul in the team to be swayed by popular opinion. That includes Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who said last week that he was "proud that we are going to do something that is correct," and team owner Paul Dolan, who said simply that "it's time" to change the nickname after months of internal discussions and meetings with Native Americans determined to see the franchise finally rid itself of the name it's had since 1915.
"I'm sick of political correctness and the cancel culture," said a defiant Evans, who left Cleveland for South Florida in 1983 and was a lawyer in Miami until he moved his practice to Palm Beach in 1996. "The team was named after Louis Sockalexis, a Native American. The name Indian was to honor their warrior spirit like the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, the Spartans, the Trojans, etc."
From this summer: President Trump criticizes Redskins, Indians for weighing name changes
More: Native mascots still a sticking point in high school sports
The Indians weren't the first pro franchise to finally budge. Earlier this year, Washington's NFL team dropped the Redskins nickname it had since 1937, and the Atlanta Braves are getting fierce pushback to change their name, although the team has remained steadfast about keeping its name and the tomahawk in its logo.
"The Redskins (name) is a little troubling, but the Braves represent, again, something to aspire to — an honorable warrior," said Evans.
Dolan, who said the Indians nickname "is no longer acceptable in the world," won't go the Redskins' route by calling his club the Cleveland Baseball Team in 2021. The Indians will still be the Indians, for at least one more season, as a multi-stage renaming process in its early stages moves toward a new era. And Evans isn't bashful about providing some backlash.
"Just like the people of Cleveland were upset when (Art) Modell moved the Browns and they fought and kept the (Browns) name, the citizens have earned the right for supporting the team for so many years to have a say in the name," Evans said. "There weren't major objections when Chief Wahoo was retired (after the 2018 season), but I understand there are major objections to changing the name and I strongly agree with them."
Evans says he's protesting out of love. Some 43 Octobers after watching the Indians lose the '54 World Series, he was at what is now Hard Rock Stadium as they coughed up a ninth-inning lead in Game 7 to the Marlins, losing in 11 innings. It was another Fall Classic failure.
And he was back in Cleveland to see the Indians battle the Cubs during the 2016 World Series with his son, Jason, who was an Indians bat boy for a few spring trainings and is now a real estate attorney in Boca Raton.
There have been numerous possible new names floated for the Indians, led by the Spiders, the nickname of Cleveland's National League team in the late 19th century. Other popular choices include the Naps, Rockers, Wild Things, Blue Sox, Crows, Guardians and Buckeyes, the nickname of Cleveland's Negro League team from 1942-50.
"If I was forced to pick a name I would say the Tribe," Evans said.
Tribe, the popular slang nickname for generations of Indians fans when they didn't want to call them the Indians, has been ruled out by Dolan, who told reporters last week that "we are not going to take a half-step away from the Indians" and that the new name wouldn't have Native American themes or connotations to it.
"I just hope they don't totally erase history for some woke political correctness," Evans said. "Calling them the Indians is an honor, the same as Notre Dame (with) the Irish or Dallas' the Cowboys. These are sick inventions by idiots who have no sense or knowledge of history and want reparations for us living in what is now called America, the greatest country in the world."
It's been 60 years since Al Rosen, one of Evans' favorite Indians players from his childhood, attended Evans' bar mitzvah. Evans has the treasured picture of them together at the ceremony to prove it. And although he doesn't know what his beloved baseball team will eventually be called, Evans knows exactly how he'll frame it if they finally win that elusive World Series title.
"I'll call it an Indians championship," he said, "and a championship for the loyal fans and citizens of Cleveland who have waited now for 73 years." .
2020-12-27 12:03:50Z
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/12/27/cleveland-indians-name-change-palm-beach-attorney-les-evans-not-fan/4030919001/
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