Cleveland Indians to stop using Chief Wahoo logo

The Cleveland Indians baseball team will stop using a controversial Native American cartoon logo, starting with the 2019 season. Chief Wahoo first appeared on Cleveland uniforms in 1948. Amid growing pressure to remove the logo critics call racist and culturally insensitive, Indians management announced Monday the team would no longer use the smiling Native American image on its uniforms and on signage at Progressive Field, although it plans to continue to sell merchandise featuring the logo in the Cleveland area. According to The New York Times, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred pressured Paul Dolan, Cleveland’s chairman and chief executive, for more than a year to make the change. “We have consistently maintained that we are cognizant and sensitive to both sides of the discussion,” Dolan said in a statement. “While we recognize many of our fans have a long-standing attachment to Chief Wahoo, I’m ultimately in agreement with Commissioner Manfred’s desire to remove the logo from our uniforms in 2019.” Other professional sports franchises, such as the NFL’s Washington Redskins, have resisted implementing similar changes.