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How to Watch 30 for 30: Deerfoot of the Diamond: Stream Live, TV Channel

A documentary short airing Tuesday details how the Cleveland Guardians' old name was inspired by a late 19th-century shooting star

ESPN is back with another installment in its acclaimed documentary series, 30 for 30, with Tuesday's premiere of Deerfoot of the Diamond. The story revolves around Louis Sockalexis, who briefly starred for the old Cleveland Spiders in the late 1800s and whose death in 1913 helped prompt the city's newer American League club to change its name in 1915 to one that was ultimately cast aside in favor of the Guardians for the 2022 season. Sockalexis was a member of the Penobscot Indian tribe of Maine and is remembered as the first Native American, as well as the first recognized minority, to play in the National League.

How to Watch 30 for 30: Deerfoot of the Diamond Today:

Date: Sept. 27, 2022

Time: 8 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN

Live stream 30 for 30: Deerfoot of the Diamond on fuboTV: Start your free trial today!

Louis Sockalexis, born in October 1871, was a multi-sport athlete who played at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1895-96, as well as playing running back for the school's first football team. Nicknamed "Deerfoot of the DIamond," he specialized in middle and long distances in track for the Crusaders. 

Alcohol plagued Sockalexis throughout his life, but he signed with the Cleveland Spiders shortly after being expelled from Notre Dame. The left-handed hitting Sockalexis posted a .338/.385/.460 slash line as a rookie in 1897,  playing in 68 games, but appeared in just 28 more games before he was released in May 1899 after his drinking problem worsened.

In 1915, the Cleveland Naps of the American League needed a new name after Napoleon Lajoie was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics. Club owner Charles Somers changed the name to "Indians," in honor of Sockalexis, a one-year wonder who died of a heart attack while working on a logging crew in the Maine woods in 1913. He was just 42 at the time of his death.

Director Lance Edmands made the film with the goal of preserving Sockalexis' legacy with the Cleveland franchise after the controversial renaming of the club.

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On: ESPN

30 for 30: Deerfoot of the Diamon

September
27
8
PM/ET
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