Cleveland Guardians reach resolution with Cleveland Guardians

According to The Athletic’s Zack Meisel, the Major League Baseball team formerly known as the Cleveland Indians has reached a resolution with the Cleveland Guardians roller derby team, clearing the way for the baseball team’s rebranding to become official.

The roller derby team filed a federal lawsuit last month to stop the baseball team from using the name Guardians on the grounds that there cannot be two sports teams with the same name in the same city. The lawsuit claimed that Gary Sweatt, the Guardians’ principal owner, was in contact with the baseball team’s lawyers in June regarding the name change, but the baseball team’s proposed buyout offer was deemed “unreasonable” and rejected.

I don’t know that anyone was all that concerned about the lawsuit actually preventing the name change until news broke on Monday that the baseball team’s scheduled launch of Guardians merchandise had been postponed, with no explanation provided.

Now we wait for the merchandise to drop.