The woke mob has infiltrated America’s pastime in ways that would shock most fans.
Now one respected manager just pulled back the curtain on how the game really gets played behind closed doors.
And this baseball manager just blamed white Trump supporters for one ugly decision that has fans fuming.
Francona goes woke on team name controversy
Terry Francona spent a decade managing the Cleveland team formerly known as the Indians before they changed their name to the Guardians after the 2021 season.
The name change was part of the broader woke assault on American sports traditions that swept through professional athletics following the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020.
President Donald Trump recently announced his intention to push the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians to change their names back to their original monikers.
When USA Today asked Francona about Trump’s initiative, the former manager showed his true colors.¹
Francona praised team owner Paul Dolan for having the "fortitude" to change the name despite opposition from fans.
"I wasn’t the one that had to kind of have the (fortitude) to do it," Francona said. "Paul Dolan ultimately was the one that had to pull the trigger. I was really proud of him, because I don’t think it was real popular with a segment of probably the older fans that kind of, I guess like Trump, ‘Why can’t it be like it used to be?’"²
But then Francona crossed a line that left baseball fans shaking their heads in disgust.
"And I guess my retort would be, ‘There’s probably a lot of people in this country who don’t want it like it used to be.’ And if you’re white, (you’re) probably just fine," Francona stated.³
The real story behind the name changes
Francona’s comments reveal the ugly truth about how these name changes actually happened.
It wasn’t a groundswell of fan demand or genuine concern from the communities these teams represent.
The pressure came from woke sports media and corporate boardrooms terrified of being canceled by the radical Left.
The vast majority of fans opposed these changes when they were implemented.
A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90% of Native Americans weren’t offended by the Washington team name.⁴
But facts didn’t matter to the woke mob that demanded these changes.
Team owners like Paul Dolan caved to pressure from a vocal minority rather than standing up for their fans and traditions.
Now Francona wants to paint anyone who disagreed with the name changes as racist Trump supporters who want to return to some imaginary oppressive past.
The former manager is playing right into the Left’s playbook of dividing Americans along racial lines.
Baseball fans deserve better than woke lectures
Terry Francona built his reputation as one of baseball’s smartest managers during his successful stints in Boston and Cleveland.
He guided the Red Sox to two World Series championships and helped break the team’s 86-year championship drought.
Look, Francona spent years earning respect from Red Sox and Indians fans who didn’t care about his politics – they cared about wins and championships.
Now? He’s throwing all that goodwill away to score points with the woke crowd.
Here’s a guy who could’ve stayed above the fray, focused on what he knows best. Instead, he’s out there calling longtime baseball fans racists because they liked a team name that had been around for over a century.
The fans who stood and cheered when he led Cleveland to the World Series in 2016? Those same people are now getting lectured about how they’re "probably just fine" because of their skin color.
That’s not the Terry Francona who managed with class for two decades. That’s someone who’s been captured by the same forces that are systematically destroying everything Americans used to enjoy together.
Baseball used to be the one place where a Trump supporter and a Biden voter could sit next to each other, argue about batting averages, and walk away friends. Francona just torched that tradition.
Where this all leads
Trump’s campaign to bring back these names isn’t really about sports – it’s about drawing a line in the sand against cultural vandalism.
Think about what actually happened here. A handful of activists and corporate executives decided that names used for decades needed to disappear overnight. No real debate. No consideration for the fans who’d grown up with these teams.
Just raw power exercised because they could.
The Guardians? The Commanders? These weren’t organic changes that grew from the communities. They were imposed from above by people who never spent a Sunday afternoon in the bleachers.
Francona knows this. He was in those meetings. He saw how the sausage got made. And instead of defending the fans who made his career possible, he’s out there carrying water for the same crowd that’s been systematically attacking everything middle America holds dear.
Francona’s comments prove that many in the sports establishment still don’t understand why Trump won such a decisive victory in November.
Americans are tired of being lectured about their supposed racism by celebrities and sports figures.
They want their entertainment to be an escape from politics, not another venue for woke indoctrination.
The sooner figures like Francona realize this, the better off baseball will be.
Trump’s America First agenda includes restoring respect for the traditions that make this country great.
That includes the historic names that connected generations of baseball fans to their favorite teams.
¹ Bob Nightengale, "Terry Francona weighs in on potential team name reversals," USA Today, July 23, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Scott Clement, "New poll finds 9 in 10 Native Americans aren’t offended by Redskins name," Washington Post, May 19, 2016.
