Jones says racial taunts speak to wider racial issues

BOSTON >> Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said Tuesday that racial taunts that prompted immediate condemnation around baseball and Boston have no place in today’s game but speak to larger racial issues in the United States.

“I thought we’d moved past this a long time ago,” said Jones, who said he heard fans call him the N-word on Monday night and had a bag of peanuts thrown in his direction.

“With what’s going on in the real world, things like this, people are outraged and are speaking up at an alarming rate,” he said.

Jones received a personal apology from Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy on behalf of the club. When he stepped up for his first atbat during Tuesday night’s game, he was also given an extended applause from the Fenway crowd, with Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale stepping off the mound to allow the applause to continue.

The All-Star said he felt “it was just the right time” to speak out.

Kennedy said 34 people were ejected for various reasons Monday night and reiterated the team’s “zero tolerance” policy for such incidents. He also said there would be extra security around the outfield Tuesday night.

“I’m a grown man with a family to raise. So I’m not just gonna let nobody sit there and berate me,” Jones said. “Where I come from if you say things like that, you put on the gloves and you go after it. Obviously in the real world you can’t do that, especially in my field.”

Kennedy said that 10-15 people are usually ejected from Fenway any given night, calling the 34 ejected Monday usually high. Along with the fan ejected for throwing the peanuts, a second fan was ejected for using foul language toward a player, though the team didn’t know whether the fan used the bad language toward Jones.

Kennedy and manager John Farrell separately met with Red Sox players on Tuesday and said the players said they’d experienced similar incidents in both Fenway and around the league.