Former Cleveland Indians Manager Terry Francona had interesting remarks about President Donald Trump’s supporters and his former team this week.
Francona is now the manager for the Cincinnati Reds, but he coached the Cleveland Indians between 2013 and 2023, a period that saw the team change its moniker to the Guardians.
The team name was changed after more than 105 years in 2021, when owner Paul Dolan said the team was “doing the right thing” after speaking with Native American groups and that the team was “headed in the right direction.”
Now, Francona has opened up about the name change.
‘And if you’re white, (you’re) probably just fine.’
Francona spoke to USA Today before a recent game against the Washington Nationals, and he said he was not courageous enough to go for the name change — it was actually the owner who was responsible.
“I wasn’t the one that had to kind of have the (fortitude) to do it. … Paul Dolan ultimately was the one that had to pull the trigger,” Francona recalled. “I was really proud of him, because I don’t think it was real popular with a segment of probably the older fans that kind of, I guess like Trump, ‘Why can’t it be like it used to be?'” he said.
It was at this point in the interview that Francona revealed he believes white people are more likely to be fine with the Indians’ name than others.
“I guess my retort would be, ‘There’s probably a lot of people in this country who don’t want it like it used to be.’ And if you’re white, (you’re) probably just fine,” he continued.
While Francona said, “That’s not how it’s supposed to work,” he claimed that he “didn’t even care what they made the name in Cleveland.”
“I really didn’t. I just know how I was in on those conversations, and we were trying to be respectful. And for that, I gave those guys a lot of credit.”
But according to a report from WEWS-TV, fans are actually clamoring for the name to come back.
In on-the-ground polling, one reporter had 47 baseball fans say they wanted the “Indians” name to return, while 12 preferred “Guardians.”
“It was always a woke choice, and there was no reason for this, and nobody that I ever talked to wanted it,” one fan told the outlet.
“It’s not racism or anything else. It’s just good ol’ tribe,” a fan named Derek added.
President Trump called for both the Cleveland Guardians and the NFL’s Washington Commanders to return to their old names on Sunday, saying, “Times are different now than they were three or four years ago.”
Trump even suggested withholding the authorization for the Commanders to get their new D.C.-based stadium if they do not revert back to the Redskins name.
Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told USA Today he was not “paying a lot of attention to” the idea of changing their name back to the Indians, and he said the team is “excited about the future” in terms of building the Guardians brand.
Francona added, “Not everybody’s gonna be happy. That’s never gonna be the case.”
“But I think as long as what you’re trying to do is respectful, you can go ahead and let people complain,” the 66-year-old concluded.
Baseball analyst Gary Sheffield Jr. told Blaze News that there are “bigger problems in the world” than the name change argument and that Francona is right to say the team is fine but that “the same could be said when they were the Indians. Folks were just fine.”
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