The Boston Red Sox have apologized to Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones after he was subjected to racial slurs and objects being thrown at him during Monday night's game at Fenway Park.
Jones told USA Today about the abuse by a Sox fan and said it was some of the worst he has endured in his 12-year career.
“A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me," Jones said. "I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.’’
The center fielder revealed that the taunts continued as the game went on and eventually security escorted the fan believed to be the culprit out of the stadium, but Jones thinks the punishment should be more severe.
“It’s pathetic,’’ he said. “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?"
On Tuesday, the Red Sox apologized to Jones and the Orioles team for what occurred and said that further action may be taken.
"The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night," Sox President Sam Kennedy said. "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."
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh echoed that statement and called the behavior totally "unacceptable."
Fenway fans behavior at the #RedSox game last night was unacceptable & shameful. This is not what Massachusetts & Boston are about.
— Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) May 2, 2017
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}