Officials investigating racist taunts at Fenway Park
By: News Staff
Email: news@abc6.com
Twitter: @ABC6
BOSTON, Mass. — Damage control from the Red Sox Tuesday.
During Monday night’s game at Fenway Park, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, who is black, says Sox fans shouted racist taunts and threw a bag of peanuts at him.
Jones says this was one of the worst cases of fan abuse he has witnessed in his 12-year career.
The Boston Red Sox apologized Tuesday morning, a day after the outfielder says he was racially taunted and had peanuts thrown at him from the crowd at Fenway.
Jones is calling the act pathetic and calling the fan that did it a coward.
“There’s a long history of these kinds of events in Boston, and I’ve spoken with various players of different eras and a lot of the things they’ve told me, I can’t say,” said Jones.
The five-time all star says he was called the N-word a handful of times.
The Red Sox issued a statement saying the team has zero tolerance for such inexcusable behavior and they are sickened by it.
“The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night. 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.”
“It bothers me. That’s not what we represent as a city at Fenway Park or any other park. It’s disrespectful and a disgrace,” said Mayor Marty Walsh.
A group of fans were ejected from the game, but Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh says the fan or fans responsible should be banned from Fenway all together.
“A ban forever from Fenway Park but also maybe criminal action.”
Jones says he has been the subject of heckling at Fenway before but this was the worst.
Mayor Walsh has a strong message for those responsible.
“If you are going to come to our city and have that type of behavior don’t come to our city.”
The team says no one was arrested at Monday night’s game but they are still trying to track down the person who threw that bag of peanuts at Jones.
The investigation is still ongoing.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
