The Atlanta Braves will not wear the controversial batting practice caps with the legacy "Screaming Indian" logo that was rumored to have been this year's design. At the end of December, ESPN broke a story that the new Braves logo caps they would wear during batting practice and Spring Training this year would be adorned with the old Screaming Indian -- a logo that was retired by the Braves organization two decades ago for being too offensive to Native American Indian groups.
Instead of the controversial hats, the Braves will wear hats that are solid navy blue with a red script "A" on the front.
Braves president John Schuerholz said. "We had a variety of choices that we looked at, some more thoroughly than others. But at the end, we liked this one. The fact that one person somewhere offered his personal opinion about one of our options, that was important to him.
"When we made our decisions, we tried to contemplate. We tried to be creative. We tried to carry on the theme of our organization and we think this script A does that. It is part of the continuum of the uniform look we have. We've never had one that looks like this during Spring Training."
You know how I like to read into things, and this is a lot of verbal back peddling from Schu. Me thinks they actually did originally choose the Screaming Indian and then had to scramble to change them because of the controversy and bad press that it caused. That reference to "one person somewhere" probably refers to the ESPN writer who wrote that the Braves Screaming Indian caps were a "disappointing" choice.
Interestingly, many Braves fans really wanted the Screaming Indian logo caps to return. While controversial to some, the logo was what many Atlantans grew up with as the logo for the team. We'll see if the Braves try again to bring back the logo at some point in the near future.
I hope they don't. It's just unnecessary controversy that the team (any team) doesn't need. Let's play baseball and not have to worry about whether the uniform our team is wearing will offend anyone. Pitchers and catchers!!!