Given the recent friction between the two teams, fireworks were definitely anticipated Monday night when the Red Sox clashed with the Orioles. Though, it’s not likely that many anticipated this kind of drama.
Fans at Fenway Park shouted racial slurs at Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones. One fan even threw a bag of peanuts at Jones.
Jones said, “A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me. I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.’’
Jones went on to say that although this wasn’t the only time he’s experienced racial static at Fenway, this incident was the worst. Jones said, “It’s different. Very unfortunate. 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 report to those type of epithets to degrade another human being. I’m trying to make a living for myself and for my family.
“It’s unfortunate. The best thing about myself is that I continue to move on, and still play the game hard. Let people be who they are. Let them show their true colors.’’
The fan who threw the peanuts at Jones was removed from the stadium, though, that punishment didn’t seem to satisfy Jones:
It’s pathetic. It’s called a coward. 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.
At the end of the day, when you throw an object onto the field of play, the player has no idea what it is. What if something hit me right in the eye and I can’t play baseball anymore. Then what? I just wear it? No.
Things like that need to be handled a little more properly, in my opinion.
Jones has become something of a lightning rod when it comes to issues of race. He referred to baseball as a “white man’s sport” last year when asked why no one in baseball had copied Colin Kaepernick’s anthem protest. He also stated, as a matter of fact, that the American flag represents “social injustice.”
This isn’t the only time Jones has had an issue with apparent racial incidents at a Major League Baseball park. In 2013, a Giants fan threw a banana at Jones.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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