The Atlanta Braves did not pass out foam tomahawks to fans for Game 5 of the National League Division series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday evening after one player called them “disrespectful.”
The Braves gave out the tomahawks during Game 1 and 2 of the series at SunTrust Park. Ahead of Game 2, Cardinals pitcher Ryan Helsley, 25, spoke out against the tomahawks, claiming they were “disrespectful” and possessed a “kind of caveman-type” imagery.
Helsley said in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
I think it’s a misrepresentation of the Cherokee people or Native Americans in general. Just depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual. They are a lot of more than that. It’s not me being offended by the whole mascot thing. It’s not. It’s about the misconception of us, the Native Americans, and it devalues us and how we’re perceived in that way, or used as mascots. The Redskins and stuff like that.
“That’s the disappointing part,” he added. “That stuff like this still goes on. It’s just disrespectful, I think.” – READ MORE