Sorrowfully Dissolving Our Louis Sockalexis Statue Fund
Sorrowfully DissolvingOur Louis Sockalexis Statue FundA Statementby Ed Rice5 December 2024For almost 15 years after first publishing my biography of Louis Sockalexis, BASEBALL'S FIRST INDIAN, in 2003, I dreamed of seeing a statue to [Read More...]
Opinion: Silence derails recognition of Louis Sockalexis
At the end of May, Major League Baseball announced it would finally recognize all the records, the statistical achievements, of the players from the Negro Leagues. Hallelujah!
‘Guardians’ is fine, and fine is good enough
I wanted to wait a bit to gauge the fallout after the Cleveland baseball team announced that, beginning in 2022, they will be known as the “Guardians.” Over the years, I’ve probably written more about this than most, and, having grown up in Cleveland as a huge baseball fan, I’m probably more emotionally attached to this than most. I grew up with the Cleveland Indians. I wanted to see how people responded before getting down some of my thoughts.
Maine banned Native American mascots.
Maine banned Native American mascots. ‘Why haven’t others followed?’ by The Bangor Daily News Editorial Board January 2, 2021 The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or [Read More...]
He’s why Cleveland came to be called the Indians. How should they honor him?
Cleveland’s major-league baseball team announced Monday that it will drop its “Indians” nickname — in place for more than a century — to “unify our community,” a decision quickly praised by Native American groups, including some members of a Maine tribe with a historic connection to the team.
Cleveland to Drop Controversial Nickname
Ed Rice’s phone was ringing off the hook on Monday. People wanted to talk about the news that Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians intend to abandon their longstanding name, one that is considered by many to be offensive. “I am stunned,” said an elated Rice, who has spent nearly 40 years researching and telling the story of Louis Sockalexis, a member of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island, and the racism that he experienced playing in Cleveland.
This Penobscot baseball player inspired the Cleveland Indians name ‘for all the wrong reasons’
Louis Sockalexis, in an undated photo taken during his professional baseball career between 1897 and 1907. Credit: Public domain It was a historic day in 1897 when Louis Sockalexis, a 26-year-old member of the Penobscot tribe, became the first Native American Major League Baseball player, taking the field for the Cleveland Spiders.
Celebrating end of Indian mascots in Maine high schools
MAINE VOICES: No schools in Maine retain Native American nicknames, mascots – that’s something to celebrate The focus has been on the bill banning the practice in the future, but it should be on the heroes who brought about its end.
Changing of a name
One of the pillar images of my childhood was seeing that giant Chief Wahoo sign that used to be on old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It was Wahoo batting righthanded -- leg lifted high in the air like he was about to take one deep. I would see that sign and every part of me would tremble with excitement because that sign meant baseball, that sign represented my childhood team, and nothing on earth was more important to me than baseball and the Cleveland Indians.
Biographer hits home run with Sockalexis story at Holy Cross
WORCESTER – One of baseball’s most delicious ironies is that this city, the only one whose major league team had no nickname, produced a player that inspired one. That would be Louis Sockalexis, a charter member of the Holy Cross Athletics Hall of Fame, the man the Cleveland Indians were named after.
Hidden heroes have done the right thing on Indian mascots
All through the late 1990s and well into the 2000s, I was part of the growing national movement to get the Cleveland Indians to drop Chief Wahoo — perhaps, the most racist caricature in use in American society. Frustration with that effort, ultimately successful after many years, led me to more than a decade of trying to work to see that all such offensive nicknames and mascots end in my home state of Maine.
Skowhegan has opportunity again to cleanse itself of insensitive mascot
I’m seeing two inconvenient truths as the Skowhegan Area High School’s 23-member school board — again — considers whether to do the right thing, and end its use of an insensitive Indians nickname and mascot, or, maintain the status quo by continuing to bury its head in the sand, bringing shame and condemnation upon its communities.
‘Friends of Sockalexis’ raising funds for monument honoring Indian Island baseball pioneer
By Larry Mahoney, BDN Staff March 23, 2018 1:00 am BANGOR — Ed Rice, author of a book about Indian Island native and former major league baseball player Louis Sockalexis, is again at the forefront [Read More...]
Demise of Cleveland’s ‘Chief Wahoo’
Demise of Cleveland’s ‘Chief Wahoo’ opens the door for proper recognition of Maine’s Sockalexis February 13, 2018 By Ed Rice By Ed Rice, Special to the BDN February 13, 2018 1:00 am Thanks [Read More...]
Neither Chief Wahoo nor the Indians’ nickname…
Earlier this week, after continued pressure from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, the Cleveland Indians announced they will strip the controversial Chief Wahoo logos from their on-field uniforms starting in 2019. The club will still sell some merchandise with the racist imagery, but doing so will prevent others from profiting off use of the smiling, red-faced caricature.
Madison Toy Debunked – Tom Fontaine
James Madison Toy was an average, 19th century major league baseball player — and average might be generous. In two unremarkable seasons, he batted .211. He finished his career with one home run. And he played on awful teams, which combined to win 65 games and lose 165.
Curse of Sockalexis…
Not meant to be anywhere near as darkly humorous as Boston’s celebrated “Curse of the Bambino” or the Chicago Cubs’ concerns about curses related to a billy goat or a reviled fan named Bartman, a curse from the late Native American political activist Russell Means was put on the Cleveland Indians baseball team for its inappropriate nickname and racist caricature logo/mascot, Chief Wahoo.
Skowhegan adults desperately need a mascot lesson. Students could teach it to them
Skowhegan adults desperately need a mascot lesson. Students could teach it to themBy Ed RiceSpecial to the Bangor Daily NewsOctober 16, 2016Recently, a friend of mine, who was an anti-Vietnam War activist, had a [Read More...]
Maine’s do-nothing Board of Education needs to take on school mascot disrespect
know many conservatives revere the notion of “local control.” But I believe here in Maine, probably as a direct result of five combative, wholly divisive years of ultra-conservative LePage administration policies, we have come face to face with a very sinister version of this philosophy that merely allows elected officials to ignore injustice and abrogate governmental responsibility.
Skowhegan ‘Indian Pride’ website continues to denigrate Native Americans
Since the French, the British and colonial Americans invaded North America, the use of alcohol helped white people to subjugate Native Americans in all manner of nefarious ways and made the indigenous peoples subservient to their respective wills. They cheated them in basic trades for furs and goods, stole lands from them again and again in treaties they never intended to honor and robbed them of their self-respect and perverted their health.