Get woke, go broke. Or at least get sued. You would think the Cleveland Indians baseball team would have been a little more creative in coming up with a new name to please the woke jokes who run Major League Baseball these days. Basically, they stole the name of the Cleveland Roller Derby team, the Guardians and decided to use it as their now. Now the Cleveland, formerly Indians are being sued for it!
The Cleveland flat-track roller derby team known as the Guardians filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block the Cleveland Guardians baseball team from using the same name. You can read the full lawsuit at the bottom of this story.
The Major League Baseball franchise known as the Indians since 1915 announced plans in July to drop the name and rebrand itself as the Guardians in the 2022 season.
When the team unveiled its plans for the new name in July, it said it was aware of the Guardians roller derby team. The baseball team said it had taken the proper legal steps to appropriate the name.
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The derby team’s lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio alleges the ball club shortchanged the derby team. The lawsuit says negotiations between the derby and ballclub ‘broke down’ Tuesday (Oct. 26).
“Major League Baseball would never let someone name their lacrosse team the ‘Chicago Cubs’ if the team was in Chicago, or their soccer team the ‘New York Yankees’ if that team was in New York – nor should they,” Christopher Pardo, the derby team’s lead attorney, said in a statement. “The same laws that protect Major League Baseball from the brand confusion that would occur in those examples also operate in reverse to prevent what the Indians are trying to do here. By taking the name ‘Cleveland Guardians’ overnight, the Indians knowingly and willfully eviscerated the rights of the original owner of that name – the real Cleveland Guardians.”