What’s in a (nick) name, anyways? Lots!

By STEVE KING

Though the nickname “Indians” will soon be gone from the Cleveland baseball scene, the Indians’ history stays.

And that’s important.

Indeed, team nicknames are a really big deal, as well they should be. They mean something. They stand for something. And that’s why a lot of Indians fans – which likely includes many of you reading this, since Browns fans and Indians fans are, in most cases, one in the same – are so upset and always will be.

Although the Browns nickname will never go away, there were some extremely tense moments a quarter-century ago when it appeared the name and history would go to Baltimore with the original Browns franchise that moved there following the 1995 season.

But Browns fans put the squeeze on the NFL to not let that happen, and the NFL, in turn, put the squeeze on Baltimore owner Art Modell to let the Browns nickname, history and colors stay in Cleveland with the expansion franchise that would begin play in 1999. Despite his claims at the time that he willfully did it out of the goodness of his heart, the truth of the matter is that Modell relented only after he was threatened by the league that the move to Baltimore would not be approved if he failed to do so.

But long before that, when it appeared in the last half of the 1995 season, following Modell’s announcement that he was moving the team, that Cleveland would be left without a franchise, there were rumors that two teams with major stadium issues then, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and even the Cincinnati Bengals, might move to Cleveland to replace the void left by the Browns’ departure if they couldn’t get deals approved for new facilities in their own cities.

The Cleveland Buccaneers?

The Cleveland Bengals?

Oh, boy!

Yes, whether there was ever any truth to those rumors — and I will forever be convinced that there was — Cleveland fans were contemplating rooting for a football team in town not named the Browns.

Thank goodness that didn’t happen.

And thank goodness that the Indians, who threatened to move twice in their history in 1964 and then again in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of stadium issues, have remained here, even if they will soon have to do so with a new nickname, which, incidentally, I like if there had to be one, and there did.