On Friday, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold asked St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Ryan Helsley, who is one-quarter Cherokee, his opinion of the Tomahawk chop, a cheer used by Atlanta Braves fans which he had witnessed the night before. Helsley heavily criticized the chant in his extensive comments.
(Readers can read the comments for themselves here in paragraphs four and five of Goold’s article.)
The Tomahawk chop cheer is the centerpiece of an entire meme-culture for Braves rooters. For example, the FanSided blog is called Tomahawk Take and a popular podcast on iTunes is called Talking Chop.