One day after fans at Fenway Park tossed a bag of peanuts at Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones and shouted racial slurs, the Boston Red Sox apologized for the behavior of their patrons.
“The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night,” the team said in a statement Tuesday morning. ” No player should have an object thrown at him on the playing field, nor be subjected to any kind of racism at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have zero tolerance for such inexcusable behavior, and our entire organization and our fans are sickened by the conduct of an ignorant few. Such conduct should be reported immediately to Red Sox security, and any spectator behaving in this manner forfeits his/her right to remain in the ballpark, and may be subject to further action. Our review of last night’s events is ongoing.”
Jones, in his 12th season and a five-time All-Star, said the behavior is common for fans at Fenway.
Jones said fans on Monday night threw a bag of peanuts at him and berated him using the N-word.
“Very unfortunate,” Jones said. “I heard there was 59 or 60 ejections tonight in the ballpark. It is what it is, right. I just go out and play baseball. It’s unfortunate that people need to resort to those type of epithets to degrade another human being. I’m trying to make a living for myself and for my family.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred released a statement on the matter Tuesday afternoon.
“The racist words and actions directed at Adam Jones at Fenway Park last night are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated at any of our ballparks,” Manfred said. “My office has been in contact with the Red Sox, and the club has made it clear that they will not tolerate this inexcusable behavior.
“Our 30 clubs will continue to work with fans and security to provide a family-friendly environment. Any individual who behaves in such offensive fashion will be immediately removed from the ballpark and subject to further action. The behavior of these few ignorant individuals does not reflect the millions of great baseball fans who attend our games,”
Jones won the Roberto Clemente award for the Orioles in 2016 as the player “who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”
He told USA Today ejections from the stadium are not likely to curb this type of fan behavior, suggesting a major fine of lifetime ban might do the trick.
“It’s called a coward,” Jones said. “What they need to do is that instead of kicking them out of the stadium, they need to fine them 10 grand, 20 grand, 30 grand. Something that really hurts somebody. Make them pay in full. And if they don’t, take it out of their check.
“That’s how you hurt somebody. You suspend them from the stadium, what does that mean? It’s a slap on the wrist. That guy needs to be confronted, and he needs to pay for what he’s done.”
Jones certainly isn’t the only player to hear racial terms when playing at Fenway Park.
New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said it is major topic of conversation among black major leaguers.
“We know. There’s 62 of us. We all know. When you go to Boston, expect it,” Sabathia told Newsday.
New York manager Joe Girardi also weighed in with strong sentiments.
“It’s disappointing this day age that stuff like this still happens and I’m not oblivious to it, I know it happens,” Girardi told reporters. “It saddens me. We’re all people and I can understand getting on a player because he has a different uniform but not getting on a player because he’s a different color. That bothers me that people stoop to those levels and there’s children in the stands.
“I know it happens in other places. It does. It’s the reality but it saddens me because we’re all people and we’re all here to help each other out.”
Girardi said there is a common decency that is missing in many ballparks.
“I know in certain places they get on the players’ wives,” Girardi said. “To me there’s something wrong with that and those people should be thrown out of the games. I really believe that. I believe there’s a way to do it and have fun with it.
“I played with Dante Bichette. He missed a fly ball in Wrigley Field one day and I was with Colorado and somebody threw him a pair of sunglasses and he put them on. That’s good fun. I can get that but there are levels that fans go to that I just think is completely inappropriate and I think baseball should be aggressive in getting them out of there.”