Cooperstown Bans the Indians’ Chief Wahoo Logo From Future Baseball Hall of Fame Plaques

Slugger Jim Thome’s will be the first without the controversial image.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is following MLB’s lead and banning the future use of Chief Wahoo, the controversial Cleveland Indians logo once called the “most offensive image in sports.”

Beginning with Jim Thome, the towering slugger who launched 612 home runs in this 22-year MLB career, Cooperstown will no longer use Chief Wahoo on player plaques. Thome’s plaque will instead show the team’s “Block C” logo.

The move follows a similar announcement in January by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who said Chief Wahoo will be removed from the team’s jerseys and hats after the 2018 season. 

“The logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use in Major League Baseball,” Manfred said at the time. 

“The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum concurs with the Commissioner’s sentiment and acknowledges the shifting societal view of Native American logos in baseball,” the Hall of Fame said in its own statement.

The move comes with the endorsement of Thome himself, who said last month that he doesn’t want Chief Wahoo on his plaque. 

“I know my decision would be to wear the ‘C’ because I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Thome, who spent the bulk of his career in Cleveland. For much of that time Chief Wahoo was on his hat, but there was a time in 2011 when he wore the “Block C.”

“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,” added Thome, who also played for the Phillies, Twins, White Sox, Dodgers and Orioles. 

Of course, not all Indians fans see it Thome’s way: