Report: Cleveland Indians to Drop Name

[McCall 1,477]

36 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

I mean, if you want to drive away arachnophobe fans, sure.  That, and the "Spiders" name has been completely and intrinsically tied to that historically-miserable season; nobody talks about the Spiders in many other contexts besides "worst MLB team of all time".

I'm deathly afraid of snakes and not once have I ever freaked out over the Diamondbacks or any other team with a snake name and/or logo.

 

Also, who cares if they were the worst team in 1899, two centuries ago? The only reason they were was because the owners bought the then-St. Louis Browns (now Cardinals) and sent all their best players there, believing they would be more profitable. Seems to me, as a non-Clevelander, that people still like the name Spiders. And you basically proved yourself wrong with the last sentence. "Nobody talks about them as the worst team". Meaning nobody cares.

[SilverBullet1929 3,255]

Is Cleveland Steamers an option?

[mattb6 690]

As a fan of the team, I want Spiders. Instantly one of the coolest names in baseball and an opportunity for some really sweet merch that isn’t a Block C. 

[Eastport76 363]

Please be Spiders. It’s perfect and unique name. 

[Ridleylash 4,272]

Remember who owns the team, guys. It won't be the "cool" name, it'll be whatever name suits the Dolans' fancy.

[SFGiants58 14,559]

If the name has to reference any player, it should be Larry Doby. The guy broke the AL color barrier only a few weeks after Robinson, went through much of the same awfulness Robinson did, and gets only a small fraction of the recognition. Honoring Doby in a more concrete way would send a good message (provided his estate gets compensation).

[McCall 1,477]

14 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Is Cleveland Steamers an option?

Depends on what you get your significant other for Christmas.

[infrared41 9,519]

15 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

If the name has to reference any player, it should be Larry Doby. The guy broke the AL color barrier only a few weeks after Robinson, went through much of the same awfulness Robinson did, and gets only a small fraction of the recognition. Honoring Doby in a more concrete way would send a good message (provided his estate gets compensation).

 

The Cleveland Larrys? The Cleveland Dobys? I like the idea a lot, but I don't see a good name.

 

Nitpick Warning: It was more than a few weeks. It was just short of three months.  Larry Doby broke the AL color line on July 5, 1947. Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

 

 

 

[nash61 1,826]

What about the Cleveland Wings? Goodyear has strong ties there.

[HereComesThax 123]

The obvious choice would be to go with the Cleveland Spiders name, which means they will call themselves The Cleveland Baseball Club for the foreseeable future. Because nothing is simple anymore.

[-Akronite- 1,736]

Spiders is fine by me, though the logo potential is better than the name sounds, if we're being honest.

[infrared41 9,519]

7 minutes ago, nash61 said:

What about the Cleveland Wings? Goodyear has strong ties there.

 

Goodyear is more Akron's thing.

[DG_ThenNowForever 16,826]

3 minutes ago, -Akronite- said:

Spiders is fine by me, though the logo potential is better than the name sounds, if we're being honest.

 

True. I think Spiders risks being ridiculous, but could be rescued by some Seattle Kraken-like design sensibility.

[the admiral 29,171]

"Remember the historically inept baseball team from the 1800s? We're them now! In a related story, we're trading Francisco Lindor and cutting payroll to the bone. Have a nice day! [up-the-waterspout finger gesture]"

[MJWalker45 6,073]

7 minutes ago, -Akronite- said:

Spiders is fine by me, though the logo potential is better than the name sounds, if we're being honest.

That's the biggest problem I see. The logo options for other names should b better. With spiders you have two, maybe three logo options. 

Spider with baseball bat and hat

Spider facing up or down with the C on his back because they need to have some type marking on it's back and a C with a spider web inside it. I think the other names work better in the case of logos is because you aren't stuck using an animal that has so many appendages that have to be accounted for, whether it's sitting still or moving. 

 

[MJWalker45 6,073]

https://sports.yahoo.com/cleveland-indians-name-change-runs-034509624.html

And people are already sitting on the Spiders and Baseball Team trademarks. As cheap as Dolan's being this year, he's probably going to find something else. The people filing don't have full control yet so who knows?

[Bonnaroo42 50]

I recall someone posting a concept a while ago where the current "C" cap logo was integrated into a simple, but well executed spider, if they don't want to totally overhaul, that'd be a great path to take.

[SilverBullet1929 3,255]

Does anyone who isn't a sports nerd even know about the Spiders having that worst team ever record though? If they rebrand right and eventually create a winner nobody is gonna care how bad a team from over 100 years ago was. Besides this isn't really "that" Spiders team. This is the current Cleveland Indians under a new name. Becoming the Spiders doesn't mean the team is gonna suddenly go back to 1899 and be awful again.

[Ridleylash 4,272]

3 minutes ago, SilverBullet1929 said:

Does anyone who isn't a sports nerd even know about the Spiders having that worst team ever record though? If they rebrand right and eventually create a winner nobody is gonna care how bad a team from over 100 years ago was. Besides this isn't really "that" Spiders team. This is the current Cleveland Indians under a new name. Becoming the Spiders doesn't mean the team is gonna suddenly go back to 1899 and be awful again.

Again, remember who owns the team. I wouldn't be surprised if the Dolans ship out a bunch of people to lower budget; they're already shopping Lindor. It's a bad idea to rebrand to the same name as a historically awful team while your current owner is running the team on cheap.

[1908_Cubs 222]

The name the Cleveland Spiders both excites and scares me.  I think Cleveland has a beautiful chance here to go Spiders, stick with a black and red scheme (and eliminate a navy/red team on top of it) and go with a nice, minimalistic logo and keep a traditional feel, to a team who's been around for a very long time.  They also have a chance to go big, and bold, with a spider holding like, eight bats and feel like a AAA team if they wanted to with that name, too.  Thankfully, I'm not super worried about that, I just know it's possible.  So it still remains a small fear.  

 

Just do the low hanging fruit here.  One color, block spider.  Black and red.  Traditional look, make the red pop on the black.  It's easy, people will love it for the color scheme and the name alone.  It will sell.