One Major League Baseball team’s political protest just blew up in their faces

 

Major League Baseball is awash in woke politics.

But the social justice warriors are the ones on the defensive now.

And one Major League Baseball team’s political protest just blew up in their faces.

Last year, the Cleveland Indians hopped on the BLM-woke politics movement in pro sports to announce the team would retire its 106-year-old nickname.

Indians’ owner Paul Dolan claimed it was time for the change even though polling data showed few actual Native American Indians were offended by the name.

Dolan wanted to virtue signal for white liberals in the media and also cynically believed a name change would be a cash windfall for the Indians as the team’s fan base would have to purchase new hats, jerseys, and t-shirts to show their support for the team.

But Dolan’s woke money grab hit a snag.

The Indians announced in 2022 they would begin play as the Cleveland Guardians.

But a roller derby team named the Cleveland Guardians already owns the trademark to that name.

If the Indians want to rebrand it could cost tens of millions of dollars.

FrontOfficeSports reports:

The team announced Friday that it will rebrand as the Cleveland Guardians following the 2021 season. The rebrand, however, could become complicated if a men’s roller derby team with the same name seeks an injunction, or a separate trademark dispute isn’t settled.

Both could be resolved, but Sneaker Law Firm founder Zakari A. Kurtz told FOS it could cost Dolan a chunk of change. Rebranding the $1.16 billion team will alone likely run at least $10 million, Kurtz said.

Kurtz said the roller derby team — which has used the name for a decade with a logo resembling the one Cleveland unveiled last week — could be the biggest impediment to the name change.

The Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins were the two sports teams that dropped their nicknames in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.

Two years later and the Redskins still can’t come up with a name and are the “Washington Football Team.”

And the Indians didn’t even do enough research to know that someone else owns the rights to their desired new name.

They were better off with staying as the Indians and the Redskins.

Sports with Balls will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.

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