CLEVELAND -- Once again, the People Who Know What's Best for Us have prevailed.
Thus, we bid adieu to Chief Wahoo - the smiling little fellow who has adorned the Cleveland Indians' uniforms since 1951 - hectored out of existence despite the wishes of the team and the bulk of its fans.
Cleveland Indians will discontinue use of Chief Wahoo for 2019 season
I'll avoid employing the overused term "political correctness" to describe what happened. It's actually worse than that.
It was more than just the usual scolding by the easily offended. It's one more example of the reordering of our lives by people who took something joyous and fun, and redefined it as something ugly; a triumph of liberal zealotry, capping decades of unrelenting caterwauling by people who are pleased to decide for us what we should do and how we should do it - and what we are if we don't.
By any measure, the fans who support the Indians with their fervor and their dollars have outspokenly and overwhelmingly demonstrated their love for the Chief over many years. And the people in the Indians front office who own and manage the team clearly wanted to keep him.
But despite that, a small cadre of The People Who Know What's Best for Us, abetted by the unrelenting lockstep drumbeat of complaint from America's newsrooms and press boxes, and pressure from the still-new commissioner of baseball, finally wore down the resolve of Indians owner Paul Dolan. So on Monday, Dolan surrendered to the inevitable and agreed to disassociate the team from its most enduring symbol.
How do I know it's a small group of people? Well, I don't, really ... other than noting the admittedly unscientific opinion polls conducted on this website, all of which decisively came down on the side of the Chief. I do know that on many Opening Days I've walked into the ballpark past maybe a couple dozen protesters as thousands of people decked out in their Wahoo gear streamed by, ignoring the finger-waggers. And over the years, I've sat at hundreds of games with the people who actually patronize the team, surrounded by Wahoo symbols of all kinds.
How do I know it's newsroom lockstep? Long experience - and ideological isolation. Newsrooms are some of the most left-wing places in America, with a homogeneous view of What Is Right. Read all the stories and columns you can find about this issue: How many did you see lamenting the Chief's demise (beat writer Paul Hoynes being a notable exception)?
Commissioner Rob Manfred should have stayed out of the Cleveland Indians' business about Chief Wahoo: Paul Hoynes
That might suggest Paul and I are swimming upstream ... except I know which side is more in tune with the people in the bleacher seats.
I'm not begrudging any of the Wahoo opponents their opinions. What I resent - and I know I've got lots of company - is that they did what liberals always do: try to force their opinions on everyone else. In so doing, they took it upon themselves to decide what the people who own the team are allowed to use for a logo, and to brand the people who have supported the team and the Chief all these years with the dreaded epithet of "racist."
The Chief has "long been the source of anguish and frustration for those who consider it offensive, outdated and racist," said The New York Times in its triumphant announcement that he will be gone at the end of the coming season. Anguish? Really? A logo that's been around for more than a half-century causes anguish to people who can't tell the difference between a winsome caricature and a hateful symbol?
I don't know what Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred's politics are, although I can take an educated guess. But it's enough to know that he either agreed with or gave in to the squeaky wheels who convinced him that the Chief was bad for the brand.
Dolan tried to make it appear that he and Manfred had reached the decision in concert. He denied that Manfred threatened to pull the 2019 All-Star Game out of Cleveland if he didn't cave.
I've got my doubts.
Manfred told The Times that he was pleased the Indians "ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball, and I appreciate Mr. Dolan's acknowledgment that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course."
Sounds to me a lot like, "Nice little plan for the All-Star Game you've got there, Dolan. Be a shame if anything happened to it."
Now that the Chief is gone, our guardians of propriety will undoubtedly focus their attention on a bigger target: The name of the team.
Dolan insists that the name is sacrosanct.
"Yes, some people will continue to make noise about that, but I'm not troubled by its use," he told columnist Terry Pluto. "The Commissioner is not troubled by the use of the name. We are confident the name will continue on."
Don't bet on it.
If you think you're done with the protesters on Opening Day, you're wrong. The People Who Know What's Best for Us will be energized by their victory. And they aren't finished.
Ted Diadiun is a member of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
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