It’s a new day for baseball in Cleveland.
On Friday, the Cleveland baseball team officially rebranded as the ‘Cleveland Guardians,’ a change that was announced over the summer.
After initially announcing the name change last December (the club first said it was pondering a name change in July 2020), the team announced the ‘Guardians’ nickname in July, a play on the Guardians of Traffic art exhibits on the Hope Memorial Bridge. The team took name submissions from the public, with Guardians being the winner among the nearly 1,200 names submitted.
The rebrand kicks off in full swing this morning, as the Guardians’ team shop at Progressive Field is now selling official Guardians merchandise. Merchandise is also available at MLBshop.com and Nike.com/fan-gear. Merchandise will begin trickling out to other Northeast Ohio retailers starting on Nov. 23.
The official rebranding ends a busy week for the team. Merchandise was initially supposed to go on sale at 9 a.m. on Monday but the release was delayed without explanation. On Wednesday, the Guardians baseball team announced that it had settled a lawsuit with the Cleveland Guardians roller derby team that allows for both teams to continue to use the Guardian name. The roller derby team filed a federal lawsuit in October seeking an injunction against the baseball team, alleging the baseball team’s name change violated the rights of the roller derby team.
On Wednesday the club removed all the Indians signage from the exterior of Progressive Field. The script Indians logo above the scoreboard inside the park was taken down at the beginning of November.
The team, which has gone by the Indians nickname since 1915, will be transitioning its website and social media channels to the Guardians name on Friday.
The Guardians open their season at home against the Kansas City Royals on March 31.
