Over the past few years, several major sports teams including the MLB team in Cleveland and the NFL team in Washington have changed their names and mascots to avoid offending the Native American community. And one MLB legend claims he’s “still shocked” that those changes took place.
Jim Edmonds – now a broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals – spoke on the issue during a recent game against the Houston Astros.
“I actually got quite a few messages on social media about some of the teams and then, you know it’s really funny when people reach out to you and say, ‘Hey, I’m from this area and we really love our baseball here,’ Edmonds said on the broadcast. “And somebody else will say ‘Yeah, I wish they had the old name that they used to have.’ It’s just funny to hear everyone’s opinion.”
Edmonds claimed that he is “shocked” that society has reached a point where names like the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins are “not allowed.”
“I’m still shocked that we’ve changed so much as a whole that we’re not allowed to have the Cleveland Indians anymore — the Guardians,” Edmonds said. “And I’m saying that, too because my wife is partial Native American, Indian and, you know, I just, I always thought it was kind of a cool thing. Not a bad thing to have a team named after, the Indians or vice versa, whatever, the Washington Redskins. All that stuff.”
The comments generated quite a few reactions on social media.
Chip Caray never wanted to call a groundout more in his entire career pic.twitter.com/VBdN5QYwHJ
— Korked Bats (@korkedbats) June 30, 2023
Jim Edmonds to Cardinals fans. https://t.co/TBRmzCIUyQ pic.twitter.com/gqcq5g7YtW
— Ryan Thomure (@RyanThomure) June 30, 2023
See this what happens when the Cardinals are this bad. Jim Edmonds has more time to talk. https://t.co/dmMxPwGewO
— Tony X (@soIoucity) June 30, 2023
Excuse me @Cardinals, what are we doing here? Just horrid filth spewing from #JimEdmonds. If he thinks that offensive names are cool, you can imagine the disgusting rhetoric said privately @MLB @MLBFanSupport @CHIPcarey @BallySportsMW @BallySports @espn @ESPNMLBShow @cnnsport https://t.co/9Bxl7sisVz
— Jaffe Joffer (@KingBartini) July 1, 2023
honestly it rocks that Caray and McLaughlin just let him go on for like a minute whenever he does this, increasing his chance of getting suspended or canned https://t.co/UtSA01MVPC
— Jon Becker (@jonbecker_) June 30, 2023
2023 and people still wanna consider Natives mascots 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 https://t.co/fqFmiUjCaJ
— Joshua McLaughlin (@mclaughlinshow) June 30, 2023
Jim Edmonds had an affair with his kid’s babysitter, so not exactly someone who thinks things out before acting https://t.co/Gkm4EUV5QG
— Nick (@NickZararis) June 30, 2023
It’s safe to say that people were not happy with Edmonds.
