The Atlanta Braves have removed a “Chop On” sign that sat near an entrance to Truist Park.
The removal of the wooden sign came as the team changed its slogan from “Chop On” to “For The A” for the 2020 season.
A new slogan is customary marketing strategy, but the team's stance on the chant has been watched closely since last year's NL Division Series.
The team’s top executive, Terry McGuirk, recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the team’s name “will always be the Atlanta Braves” and the tomahawk will remain on the Braves’ jerseys.
The team’s position on the tomahawk chop at games is a different and unresolved question.
“At this point in time, those discussions are still ongoing,” Braves President and CEO Derek Schiller told he AJC. “… It’s a topic that deserves a lot of debate and a lot of discussion and a lot of thoughtfulness, and that’s exactly what we are doing
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Ryan Helsley, a member of the Cherokee Nation, said he found the chant insulting. “Out of respect for the concerns” expressed by Helsley, the Braves did not distribute the red foam tomahawks before the decisive Game 5 of the series, won by the Cardinals.
The Braves said they would continue to examine the chant after the 2019 season, a process that continues.
Since there will be no fans at Braves' home games for at least the start of the pandemic-delayed 60-game season, the team may feel no urgency to release a new policy on the chant.
Braves fans began chopping and chanting in the early 1990s following the addition of Deion Sanders, who played in college with the Florida State Seminoles. The team has encouraged the chant by playing music and distributing the foam tomahawks.
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