Toronto Blue Jays fans tuning in to local radio coverage of their favourite team will not be hearing Cleveland’s full team name during the upcoming playoff series.

The radio voice of the Blue Jays, Jerry Howarth, has said that he will not be using the word “Indians” when referring to Cleveland during his coverage of the American League Championship Series that gets underway Friday.

Howarth said in an interview that he has not referred to either Cleveland or Atlanta by their full team names since the 1992 World Series, when the Blue Jays beat Atlanta. According to Howarth, he received a letter from an indigenous man in Northern Ontario who explained to him that he found the names “Indians” and “Braves” offensive, as well as Atlanta fans’ popular gesture known as the “tomahawk chop.”

Howarth said he found the letter very moving and from then on would not refer to the teams by anything other than the names of their city.

According to Renu Mandhane, the chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, indigenous-themed names and mascots create barriers to inclusion for indigenous people in sports.

“I think it’s a simple fix to just not refer to the team name for Cleveland, at least while we’re in Canada,” Mandhane told CTV News Channel. “We want sports to be a driver for inclusion.”

Mandhane said that indigenous themes in sports can actually impede a person’s access to the sport and in this case has made some fans feel like they can’t attend games because of the prominent displays of the team’s name.

According to Cleveland’s website, they adopted the name “Indians” in 1915. The website says they took on the name as a revival of the team’s old nickname when Native American Louis Sockalexis played for the then Cleveland Naps.

The team then adopted the “Chief Wahoo” caricature as a logo in the 1940s, originally with a yellow face and a red headband with a feather. It was changed in the 1950s, to the current “Chief Wahoo” logo with a red face and red feather. In 2013, the team officially designated the logo to secondary status, replacing it with a “C” for Cleveland.

Twitter users have tweeted in agreement with Howarth, using the hashtag #NotYourMascot, thanking the veteran broadcaster for his decision to avoid use the controversial name.

Howarth was born in the United States and started working with the Jays in 1981. He became a Canadian citizen in 1994, and now calls Toronto home.