The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame will no longer allow Chief Wahoo, the longtime logo of the Cleveland Indians, to be displayed on Hall of Fame plaques.
The Hall of Fame announced their position in a statement released on Wednesday:
The issue came about last month as soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer and former Indian Jim Thome, announced that he did not want the Wahoo logo on his cap or plaque, when he gets enshrined.
“I know my decision would be to wear the ‘C’ because I think it’s the right thing to do,” Thome said. “I think I need to have a conversation with the Hall of Fame because of all the history and everything involved. I just think that’s the right thing to do.”
However, the matter of which logo a player wears for Hall of Fame enshrinement, is not solely up to the player. The Hall of Fame has final say in order to ensure that the player wears a logo which represents a significant portion of his career. As opposed to a player getting enshrined with a logo for a team he only played with briefly.
In this case, the Hall of Fame went a step beyond what Thome was asking for, and instead created a new policy for all future Indians Hall of Famers.
In January, MLB announced that the Indians would remove Chief Wahoo from all jerseys and caps. Commissioner Manfred said at the time, “the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball.”
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