The Cleveland Guardians

[Benjamin Grimm]

Drew Carey would have been a perfect choice.

[MFS62]

on the bright side, there's a pretty natural branding tie-in that they could do in right field... https://www.kroger.com/product/images/large/front/0001700006837> maybe with freebie giveaways for the luck fans in attendance!

So, like the Pepsi Porch, they could have the Right Guard armpit.



Later

[Ceetar]

A Boy Named Seo wrote: you are a tough customer, Ceets

agreed, but I'm not alone on this one. I see a lot of people making these comparisons.





Racism and "i'm sorry you're upset we'll make it a little different" aside, Naming your team after the 'guardians of traffic', statues of assyrian kings on one bridge, but evokes all sorts of bland Robocop imagery is a touch sell.



At best it's "good enough" which is corporate America's MO (And one of the reasons I always said the Wilpons were basically the same as everyone else in baseball).. REIMAGINE IT. damn, you have the potential to do so much, and the Spiders are sitting right there if you want to get historic and traditional with it.



Cleveland Rocks maybe is a little too kitschy but who cares? Think of all the fun imagery you can do with the mash-up of music notes and baseballs/bats.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

I've heard people in Cleveland are tired of the rock and roll motif.



I like Guardians. Something identifiable to Cleveland that's not a lake on fire. Shortens to "Guards." Those statues are really cool, and a stone's throw from the ballpark.



Don't much care for the winged G, but I like the subtle changes to the block C, which I assume is the cap logo.



I know a lot of people liked Spiders for a name. But I think people in general don't like spiders much.



This was a good choice. Nice job!

[bmfc1]

They didn't change the last 5 letters.

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6_Zy5IXEAAKgPJ?format=png&name=small>

This is kind of like how Fudgie the Whale and the Santa Claus cake had the same shape.

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: I think we as a nation are leaning on the authority of Tom Hanks wuh-HAY too much. Hanks is from the San Francisco Bay area

Early in his career, I remember Hanks going on Letterman, et al, and talking about his experiences in Cleveland (and gently jibing the local ballclub).

The actor has a special relationship with the city as he's credited time spent there with changing his life. In the late '70s, Hanks worked the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival for a few years. It's where he earned his Actors Equity Card. "I had never been out of California before getting the job in Cleveland," Hanks wrote in a 2019 essay for AARP. It's where he met lifelong friends, George Maguire and Michael John McGann. "They were... the kind of actor I wanted to be — and the kind of human being I hoped to become," he said. When the season was over, Maguire and McGann convinced Hanks to pursue his acting dream in New York, despite "the comfort of the West Coast" calling the eventual Oscar-winner back home. "You would not be reading these words otherwise," Hanks explained.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tom-hanks-california-cleveland-indians-guardians-video-182226808.htmlhttps://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tom-hanks-california-cleveland-indians-guardians-video-182226808.html

[Edgy MD]

That's a good point, and I defer.



In PART!

[Chad ochoseis]

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72378 time=1627069805 user_id=119]
I've heard people in Cleveland are tired of the rock and roll motif.

[Ceetar]

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72378 time=1627069805 user_id=119]
I've heard people in Cleveland are tired of the rock and roll motif.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

=Ceetar post_id=72392 time=1627082748 user_id=102]
=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72378 time=1627069805 user_id=119]
I've heard people in Cleveland are tired of the rock and roll motif.

[kcmets]

I can name two dozen bands that belong in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of

Fame before Traffic. Terribly over rated. My guess is you walk up to

someone on the street 99 times out of a hundred and ask them about

a Traffic song they say what is a traffic song? Crazy.

[Centerfield]

I like the name. Makes a lot of sense with the bridge.



Logo isn't great. But that can improve.

[Lefty Specialist]

Eh, I guess they did the best they could with what they had to work with. Would have liked Rockers or Rocks, but it sounds too much like the Rockies and if the locals were tired of it, then so be it.



It's kind of a clunky name but I guess we'll get used to it.

[Ceetar]

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=72433 time=1627095444 user_id=119]




Nobody loves traffic. But they like really cool, massive sculptures that are identified with their cities. You don't make sense sometimes.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

It's a big bridge. It's the polar opposite of generic. Generic is a name like Wildcats or a Tigers used by teams at all levels of sports. This is a name unique to Cleveland named after a Cleveland landmark. They're using colors and a style that connects them to the team's history and fan base while moving away from the prior name. The whole project is an acknowledgment of the racial imagery and the need to move forward.



The name change is a necessary move. This still is identifiable with the team that is a charter member of the American League.



It might even be a transitional design.



Better this than another Devil Rays disaster.

[Ceetar]

The Devil Rays were great. this is not.



I received a book rec and a gutter email since the name announcement for Guardian. If you read a headline that didn't use baseball terminology, you might think it was a security company, insurance, or any of the other billion uses of the word.



"Hell, Guardians break down in Anaheim" could be about the Disneyland ride or a baseball game. Who knows?



The guardians themselves aren't even unique to Cleveland. They're Assyrian Kings. How many representations of them do you think there have been over the last 3000 or so years?



The name is fine, if boring, as long as the fans are fine with it. But using the same color scheme, practically the same font and lettering and all that reeks of capitulating to public pressure, not actually trying to distance oneself from racist iconography. And certainly doing so without even mentioning the reason. It's so similar to the current scheme that you can barely tell. Most teams have alternates that differ more than that.



The existence of the team playing ballgames is like 99% of the continuity. "We gotta ease up on deviating too much from the racist look because this is how we looked in 1940 and we gotta respect that" is mindnumbly stupid. Have some guts and creativity. But nothing's stopping them from continuing to alter it, even for next season. Hopefully they do so, and start establishing a new identity, because this one is little more than the same thing with the word 'censored' in front of the offensive parts and pretending that's enough.





Anyway, Braves, Chiefs, Blackhawks, et al, you're up.

[Edgy MD]

=Ceetar post_id=72468 time=1627156852 user_id=102]The Devil Rays were great.

[Ceetar]

hell of a lot better than just the bland 'rays' who play inside most of the time, out of the rays of the sun.

[ashie62]

It could be a jersey for a Guardian Life Insurance Company.

[Double Switch]

The winged G. I'm thinking they could have opened up a wider fan base by renaming them the Cleveland Valkyries.

[Edgy MD]

hell of a lot better than just the bland 'rays' who play inside most of the time, out of the rays of the sun.

OK.



Myself, I'm hoping on being traded from Cleveland to Anaheim, so I can thereafter be introduced as a "Guardian Angel."

[whippoorwill]

Intrigue:



The Cleveland Guardians are the name of the local men's rollerball team. Stay tuned for what happens now



My guess: MLB team will take name by eminent domain, $$, or bullying