Editor’s note: This story was updated on Wednesday with a statement from the National Congress of American Indians.
HOUSTON — Major League Baseball does not seem likely to soon encourage or force the Atlanta Braves to eliminate the use of “the chop,” an in-game chant Braves fans use and that some Native Americans find offensive.
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Before Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night, commissioner Rob Manfred said that the Braves have the support of Native Americans in the Atlanta area, and that the support he cited was sufficient for the Braves to retain use of the chop, and for the team to continue to be named the Braves.
“It’s important to understand that we have 30 markets around the country. They’re not all the same,” Manfred said. “The Braves have done a phenomenal job with the Native American community. The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves’ program, including the chop. For me, that’s kind of the end of the story. In that market, taking into account the Native American community, it works.”
But there isn’t unanimous support for the use of the chop among prominent Native American groups. Manfred acknowledged as much, but seemed unswayed.
“I don’t know how every Native American group around the country feels,” Manfred said. “I am 100 percent certain that the Braves understand what the Native American community in their region believes and that they’ve acted in accordance with that understanding.
A day after Manfred’s comments, the president of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Fawn Sharp, put out a statement rebuking Manfred’s position.
“Yesterday, Commissioner Manfred stated that the question of whether the ‘Braves’ mascot and ‘tomahawk chop’ fan ritual are offensive to Native people is only a local issue. He similarly asserted the league does ‘not market our game on a nationwide basis.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” Sharp wrote.
“Major League Baseball is a global brand, it markets its World Series nationally and internationally, and the games played in Atlanta this weekend will be viewed by tens of millions of fans across the country and around the world. Meanwhile, the name ‘Braves,’ the tomahawk adorning the team’s uniform, and the ‘tomahawk chop’ that the team exhorts its fans to perform at home games are meant to depict and caricature not just one tribal community but all Native people, and that is certainly how baseball fans and Native people everywhere interpret them.
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“Consequently, the league and team have an obligation to genuinely listen to Tribal Nations and leaders across the United States about how the team’s mascot impacts them. NCAI, a consensus-based congress composed of hundreds of Tribal Nations from every region of this country, has made its categorical opposition to Native ‘themed’ mascots abundantly clear to sports teams, schools, and the general public for more than five decades.
“In our discussions with the Atlanta Braves, we have repeatedly and unequivocally made our position clear — Native people are not mascots, and degrading rituals like the ‘tomahawk chop’ that dehumanize and harm us have no place in American society. NCAI calls on the team to follow the example set by the Cleveland Guardians, and we call on Major League Baseball and the Fox Broadcasting Company to refrain from showing the ‘tomahawk chop’ when it is performed during the nationally televised World Series games in Atlanta.”
Such sentiments aren’t new.
“We appreciate that the Atlanta Braves are trying to honor the Native community, but the best way to honor us, is to stop the use of Native American depictions across sports,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal last year.
In 2019, Cardinals pitcher Ryan Helsley, a member of Cherokee Nation, said that the chop “devalues our Cherokee heritage and the Native American history.”
“Us as Cherokee native people went through a lot in this country, and to have your ancestors used as a mascot, it’s more of a disappointment-type thing,” Helsley said. “It doesn’t make me mad or anything, it’s just like a disrespect-type thing. It shows less respect for the people, you know?”
The Cherokee Nation includes more than 390,000 tribal citizens and is the country’s largest tribal government, per its website.
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Meanwhile, Tony Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, called for further dialogue.
“Particularly with any issue that is a social issue, or an issue that yields or incites the kind of commentary that we’ve seen in Atlanta, (it) is worthy of some dialogue,” Clark said. “I know that there are certain things that as a Black man resonate with me and will assume that there are instances that resonate with others as well.
“I simply hope that to the extent that more dialogue is needed, that dialogue happens.”
Labor talks and on-field rules
Neither Manfred nor Clark said much substantive about an ongoing and ominous topic: collective bargaining. The sport’s CBA expires on Dec. 1, and the likelihood of a lockout is higher than it’s been in many years.
“It’s our No. 1 priority,” Manfred said. “The most important thing is not one paragraph or two paragraphs in the agreement, the most important thing, the win in collective bargaining, is you make an agreement.”
The sides are meeting regularly, both formally and informally. Over the years, Manfred said, his position has always been one of optimism.
“It’s hard to characterize progress,” Manfred said. “Progress is, you go in a room, you’re having conversations, people are continuing to talk. It doesn’t move in any measurable way that I’ve ever figured out, and I’ve done it a long time. The most important one is I know our clubs are 100 percent committed to the idea that they want an agreement by Dec. 1.”
Clark said he’s “always a glass-half-full guy.”
“We anticipate taking advantage of the days we have leading up to and through the expiration,” Clark said.
The union is focused on incentivizing competition and getting players paid more earlier in their careers.
“Competitive integrity, integrity in the system, competition on any given night, has been the focus, will continue to be the focus,” Clark said.
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Manfred and the owners are keen on expanding baseball’s playoff system, in no small part because it would bring in additional television revenue. The playoffs were expanded in 2020 in the pandemic-shortened season, but the sport returned to the previous, smaller format for 2021.
“I think the decision as to whether we should have expanded playoffs is bigger than whether we had a good year this year or not,” Manfred said.
Besides economics, the look of the game and the on-field product will also be discussed. MLB experimented in the minors this year with several different possible alterations to the game, including larger base sizes. A pitch clock has long been a topic of discussion as well. MLB was pleased with the use of the clock in the minor leagues this year.
“The data is certainly encouraging, game times in the 2:40s, which is really sort of a nice number when you think about it in comparison to where we’ve been,” Manfred said. “I think maybe more important than that is the people that go and watch the game fell like the pace of the game, the action in the game has really been improved, that it actually alters the requirement of moving along pitching, kind of changes the game, the way it’s played a little bit.”
In the majors, game lengths were at an all-time high in 2021: 3 hours, 10 minutes.
Clark said that no proposal has been made yet on on-field rules.
“Let me be very clear: I’m a former player, I owe everything to the game,” Clark said. “Do I watch it? Do I critique it? Do I analyze it? Am I willing to have a conversation about its wellbeing? Always have and will continue to, that’s not going to change. And I’m sure that at the end of the World Series, the dialogue that we’ve had to this point will continue.”
Manfred noted that MLB has the ability to implement on-field rule changes after giving the union a year’s notice.
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“There’s going to come a point in time where the pressure to make change is going to be sufficient,” Manfred said. “I’d prefer to do it by reaching an agreement with the players.”
Manfred declined to say whether he believed this World Series would be the last where a pitcher hits, citing the issue as a bargaining topic.
“Hopefully come December 1, or a little bit before, we’ll know,” Manfred said.
Returning to Atlanta
Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game away from Atlanta this year after Georgia passed voting laws that critics believed would suppress voting rights, disproportionately affecting Black voters.
The All-Star Game is considered one of MLB’s jewel events, like the World Series. Manfred didn’t say much Tuesday when asked about the return to Atlanta.
“Atlanta played great down the stretch, did a tremendous job in the playoffs,” Manfred said. “They earned their right into the World Series, and we’re looking forward to being back in Atlanta.
“We always have tried to be apolitical. Obviously there was a notable exception this year. I think our desire is to try to avoid another exception to that general rule. We have a fan base that’s diverse, has different points of view and we’d like to keep the focus on the field, on the game.”
Manfred said it has gotten harder for the league to maintain apolitical stances generally.
Astros return to World Series
Manfred tried to steer clear of the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal and his handling of punishments.
“My general thoughts are that we had a great division series, LCS,” Manfred said. “We’ve got two teams that have played really, really well, and I’m looking forward to a great World Series, all forward-looking from my perspective.”
Pressed on his decision not to punish players, Manfred repeated himself: “I’m going to say it one more time, I’m looking forward to a great World Series. That’s what you’re going to get on that.”
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Manfred spoke to reporters in front of the home dugout at Minute Maid Park, putting Manfred in literal shouting distance of some fans who were unhappy with Manfred’s treatment of the team.
Manfred praised the direction Astros’ general manager James Click has taken the team. Click took over for Jeff Luhnow, who was fired and suspended in the fallout of the sign-stealing scandal.
“I think since James has been here as the GM, he’s done a phenomenal job,” Manfred said. “I can’t say enough good things about what he’s done.”
What if the Astros win?
“I think the Astros winning will be a great accomplishment for the Astros,” Manfred said, “and that people are going to make up their own minds about what it means.”
Money, money, money
MLB’s revenues bounced back in 2021 after 2020, but Manfred declined to offer specifics.
“Our losses will be much, much, much smaller than last year. I’m not going to put a number out there right now, it’s too early to do that,” Manfred said. “The return of fans to the ballpark was faster and more dramatic than we had forecast going into the season.”
Manfred has previously pegged 2020 losses at close to $3 billion. MLB revenues are virtually impossible to independently verify.
(Photo: Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
