Blue Jays' Announcer Jerry Howarth Isn't Going To Say The Word 'Indians' Throughout The Entire ALCS

TheSportingNews- Blue Jays play-by-play man Jerry Howarth said he won't be referring to Cleveland's MLB franchise as the "Indians" when he calls the ALCS between the teams beginning Friday. 

“For the rest of my career I will not say ‘Indian’ or ‘Brave,’ and if I was in the NFL I would not say ‘Redskins,’” Howarth said Tuesday on "The Jeff Blair Show" on Toronto's Sportsnet 590 The FAN . 

Howarth said he made a conscious decision to avoids the terms almost 25 years ago after reading a letter from a member of a First Nation, who told him he found them offensive. 

“He just wrote it in such a loving, kind way,” Howarth said. “He touched my heart."



Well, if this isn't the most self important gesture of all time. This is such a "look at me" move that it has to break at least a half dozen of baseball's unwritten rules. Hey guys, Jerry Howarth isn't going to say an innocuous word like 'Indians' because it offended one person enough for them to write about it a quarter century ago, might be time to give him the 'Native American Appreciation Award' for his efforts. Seriously, this isn't a Washington...uhhhh...coughredskinscough....situation. After Chief Wahoo's retirement, there is nothing outright derogatory about a team named after a group of people. Maybe some of those people would prefer the team not be named after them, but I highly doubt that some old white announcer refusing to acknowledge that it is for a week is going to bring them to their knees in gratitude. Maybe I haven't spent enough time in New Mexico drinking liquor out of the bottle with members of the American Indian community, but - as far as I know - they are on pretty good terms with Cleveland's baseball franchise. You know, as long as we make sure Pedro's postgame mic is off. That means this decision is nothing more than self serving one that gets the voice of the Blue Jays a proverbial pat on the ass and maybe a little more face time.

Oh, and can we get odds on whether this guy lets the name of a team he's covering for as many as seven games slip ONCE during that time period? He better have a shock collar wrapped around his genitals that electrocutes his unborn children once "Ind..." starts to form at his lips, because I'll tell you what he can't do. He can't announce to the public that he's going to treat something that's not a slur like it's a slur and then accidentally say it. If he ends up repeating "Cleveland" so many times that he might as well be in front of a mirror trying to summon the ghost of Art Modell then so be it. I don't care if he wants to limit his vocabulary because he's offended by a seemingly harmless word, but if he gets to decide what he deems a racially insensitive term then the general public gets to crucify him if he haphazardly uses it. No pressure Jer, but I might treat you like Trump if you say the name of a baseball team simply to show you how silly it is not to.