‘Everyone should feel comfortable at Fenway’
Boston sports struggle with perception built on racist past
When Red Sox fans hurled the N-word toward Orioles outfielder Adam Jones in Fenway Park, it was a reminder of Boston’s racial legacy — particularly around its sports teams.
Boston’s reputation as a racist sports town developed through decades of barriers broken and maintained, intertwined with broader struggles for progress along with today’s climate of racial tension that sports can’t avoid.
Despite its teams and the city making strides on race, Boston still has perceptions of racism to overcome.
“Boston has a reputation, partially left over from a long time ago, that there is more racism within Boston sports,” said Richard Lapchick, director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. “The type of incident that happened ... is something I would’ve expected to read about in Boston 25 years ago.”
Jones was given an extended ovation on Tuesday night as he stepped to the plate for his first at-bat, a moment sharply different from what he described Monday night, saying he heard fans call him the N-word and had peanuts thrown in his direction in the dugout, hitting a nearby police officer.
Fenway security said 34 people were ejected, but only one for using foul language toward a player, and it was unclear whether that was toward Jones. Police said the peanutthrower was ejected by stadium security before police could identify him.
The all-star said he felt “it was just the right time” to speak out after experiencing previous racial heckling at Fenway during 12 seasons, though he said it was more a sign of larger racial issues than an indictment of Boston or its fans.
Several black ballplayers said Tuesday Jones was just describing what they regularly experience.
The Celtics and the Bruins were pioneers in professional basketball and hockey during the 1950s.
But the Red Sox were the last Major League Baseball team to field a black player. Pumpsie Green debuted at Fenway in 1959 — more than a decade after Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers, and even after Willie O’Ree took the ice for Boston in the all-white National Hockey League.
The Red Sox ballpark and offices are located on Yawkey Way, named for franchise owner Tom Yawkey who presided over the team at the time. The Red Sox passed on Robinson in 1945 and also passed on a chance to sign future Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
The Celtics were the first team to draft a black player, the first to field an all-black starting five and the first to hire a black head coach.
Bill Russell was among the league’s first black players and champions, but he wasn’t embraced by fans during his career and was embittered by his experience in Boston for years, though he is now a beloved figure in the city.
In the 1980s, the rivalry between the white Celtics star Larry Bird and the AfricanAmerican Lakers star Magic Johnson epitomized the NBA’s racial divide.
Earlier this season, Celtics forward Jae Crowder, who is black, said he felt “disrespected” by fans openly coveting white potential free agent Gordon Hayward, rekindling the debate.
In 2012, some fans upset with the Washington Capitals for bouncing the Boston Bruins from the NHL playoffs lobbed racial insults on Twitter toward Joel Ward, the former UPEI Panther who is black.