I’ve been a resident of Northeast Ohio and diehard Cleveland sports fan all my life. Since birth, I’ve followed all our teams blindly and believed; because that’s what we were taught to do. I can not remember a time when life did not revolve around teams like the Browns, the Cavs, the Force, the Rockers, the Lumberjacks, and of course, the Indians. With my family and friends, I have witnessed “The Drive,” and “The Fumble,” and “The Shot,” and “Game 7 vs the Marlins.”

My pride in our teams, our region and our state is great, however, even as someone who was indoctrinated into #Believeland, I feel that we have a moral imperative as a community to stand united and address the elephant in the room that follows our beloved ball club.

To Mr. Lawrence J. Dolan, please consider the following leadership actions as a way to usher in a new era of #Believeland:

Once our @Indians beat the Cubs to win a #WorldSeries, the immediate next move from the ownership should be to drop Chief Wahoo as a mascot, rename our ball club and treat all people with dignity and respect. As fans, as a community, as role models for future generations of Cleveland fans, we have to recognize the relevance and need for this action at this time, on this stage, and place importance on it over money and nostalgia. 

To all the fans like me, please join me in urging the Cleveland Indians ownership to take this important step and lead the way for other professional sporting teams to follow suit; because that is the #Believeland that I know and that is the #Believeland I want to be a part of. I hope you want to be a part of it too.

Respectfully,

Jeremy S. Brueck

P.S. Winning and losing a ball game shouldn’t matter here. Please do what’s right.

none