Sportscam Detective reveals the real reason Cleveland Guardians was selected as the replacement name.

Before SportsCam Detective reveals the real reason for the Cleveland Indians name change to the Cleveland Guardians, 

• a brief recap is in order of what names could have been chosen, 
• why the name the Guardians is an awful choice, 
• and why the name the Guardians may be the best choice.

Sportscam Detective likes the name the Cleveland Beltways. The reason I like the name at first is a head scratcher but when the reasons are given for the name Beltways the entire Cleveland region's reputation is embellished.

My top choices are….

The Cleveland Beltways (click link for full article)

The Cleveland Chasers (Cleveland is always chasing after a championship in multiple sports. Lebron James, who helped chase down the first championship for Cleveland in 50 years, also became known for his ability to chase down a player from behind and block their lay-ups).

The Cleveland Shakers. Shaker Heights is a core part of Cleveland and I like the name, Cleveland Shakers.

The Cleveland Colavitos. If only Cleveland had given to Rocky Colavito what Mr. Colavito was relentlessly giving to the Cleveland Indians, this would be a no brainer.

I do NOT like Cleveland Guardians for many reasons. 

• Baseball is the one sport where one team does not perpetually guard all of the the other team's starting players. 
• Basketball, Football, and Hockey ALL require guarding all of the players from the opposing team that are on the field, court, or ice rink at all times.  
• Even when there is a need to guard a baserunner in baseball it is still one position player doing the guarding and ironically, the player guarding the baserunner actually stops guarding the base runner so they can get into position as the next pitch is being thrown to the plate.

I also do not like the name Guardians because there are frightening examples of Guardianship fraud in the U.S. 

• Senior’s rights and their wealth is being taken from them without their consent all over the country and complicit judicial systems are involved. 
• There are many cases in which a Guardianship victim’s own family may be denied visitation access to their parents or grandparents after a Guardianship coup has been performed by either a Government worker or a member of the family who cunningly creates a secretive Guardianship scenario without letting anyone else who is related to the the person being “guarded” know what is going on, until it is too late to change it.

Possibly the grimmest and saddest reason of all to detest the name Guardians is Cleveland MLB baseball has a pathetic history of keeping its most popular player’s, aka fans favorites, or Guardians, in a Cleveland Uniform.

• Let’s start with Rocky Colavito. If ever there was a Guardian for Indians Baseball it is Rocky Colavito. Before Cleveland Baseball twice gave up on Colavito, Colavito hit 150 home runs in the Minors prior to being called up, and then. Colavito hit another 374 in the Majors. When Colavito retired after 1968, it was not as an Indian. 
• Nobody in Cleveland among ownership and the media had the foresight to encourage Rocky Colavito to try and get in shape and be the Cleveland DH in 1971. If Mr. Colavito had made a comeback by only having to focus on being a DH, can you imagine the excitement that would have been created in Cleveland? What if Colavito, who was known for having a great arm, had come back as a pinch hitter, DH, and reliever? 
• Hank Aaron was able to extend his home run record with two years of DH’ing, Colavito was only 6 months older than Aaron, yet nobody suggested he try be a pinch hitter, DH, and reliever? 
• Aaron played 10 more years than Colavito did. I think part of the reason was Colavito never had his forever fans and forever stadium like many greats of his time did. 
• Many great players of the 60' s and 70's remained with the same team their entire career, if Colavito had been treated equally to those other stars, he would be in the Hall of Fame and Cleveland fans of the early 70's would have had their own Guardian Sports player to root for.

Speaking of Guardians, after Rocky Colavito I like to think there were several Cleveland Star players who could have been  Cleveland Guardians. 

However, the list of Cleveland baseball players who left via free agency rather than sign a team friendly contract includes Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor, Cy Young Award Winner Cliff Lee. CC Sabathia did give up two years of free agency to ensure a nice pre-departure contract, but ultimately he too left for a long career in New York. 

Possibly the most ironic Guardian departure was Francisco Lindor. Lindor was literally the Cleveland Indians logo Doppleganger who probably could have done amazing things for Native Americans yet never hestitated when it came to going for the biggest contract possible. Even after the success Cleveland had in 2016 and then again in 2017 (22 game winning streak) both of which occurred near the beginning of Lindor's career in Cleveland, Lindor still wanted the largest contract he could get. 

However, one wonders if Cleveland did enough as Guardians for Lindor and Roberto Perez's family in Puerto Rico during the savage hurricane season of 2017.

The saddest of all may be Michael Brantley. The Indians could not afford to keep Mr. Meticulous and his plus .300 batting average which would have made the last several seasons trying to cobble together a platoon in left field a non-issue and possibly kept Cleveland’s playoff aspirations more relevant over the past few seasons.

However, having said all of the above…the real reason the name Guardians was chosen has never been revealed until now. I believe the reason why the Guardians name was selected is Paul Dolan Jr. is tributing mostly his father, and to some degree himself as the Guardians of Cleveland Indians baseball. Without their ownership the team may have fled to another State by now.

Who can argue against that? 

Los Angeles Emmy winning Producer Alessandro Machi combines his editing, camera and observational skills to provide unique insights into the World of Sports.