Deerfoot of the Diamond

After the 2021 season, a new name came to Major League Baseball. To the delight of many, and the consternation of others, Cleveland’s ballclub was now known as the Guardians. And the story of team’s long journey to its new nickname is a tale that encompasses heroism, tragedy, racism, and the complexities of history over more than a century of time – all revealed in the ESPN Films 30 for 30 short DEERFOOT OF THE DIAMOND, directed by Lance Edmands.

The story actually begins not in Cleveland, but Maine, and the Penobscot reservation in the late 1800’s. There, in a community where running was considered a path to enlightenment, a young man named Louis Sockalexis emerged as a star player in a new American game, baseball. He’d eventually be spotted by the college team at Holy Cross playing in a summer league, and would head to the school in Worcester, Mass. to enroll. He’d become a star, and in 1897, turned professional and signed with Cleveland’s National League team.

Fans and the media quickly fell in love with the club’s new star, and took to referring to the team as the Cleveland Indians, a name that a number of years later would become the permanent nickname of Cleveland’s American League team. Sadly, by then, Sockalexis’s career was long over, cut short by injury and alcoholism, the latter certainly heightened by the prejudice that defined the time.

DEERFOOT OF THE DIAMOND juxtaposes a poignant telling of the tragic story of Sockalexis with a revealing history of the controversy over the Indians name, which stretched for decades in Cleveland and beyond, leading up to the ultimate renaming of the franchise before the 2022 season. The film, which utilizes artful recreation and transcripts of interviews with Sockalexis, is a sensitive tribute to his legacy.