JEERS TO CHEERS
The Red Sox faithful mostly rose and applauded, Fenway Park not quite rising as one but cheering heartily nonetheless. As if to thank them, Adam Jones quickly struck out.
The Orioles outfielder, a day after having the N-word slung at him by fans in Boston, was given a warm reception by a sparse crowd in his first at-bat Tuesday. Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale briefly stepped off the mound to allow more time for the claps to shower Jones, who was cheered again as he retreated to the dugout.
“I thought we’d moved past this a long time ago,” Jones told reporters in Boston before the Orioles’ 5-2 win. In addition to the taunts, he had a bag of peanuts thrown at him in the dugout Monday. “But obviously with what’s going on in the real world, things like this, people are outraged and are speak- ing up at an alarming rate. It’s unfortunate that I had to be involved with it.”
Jones had called the actions of Fenway fans “pathetic” on a night that a Red Sox spokesman said 34 were ejected in all, with one tossed for using “foul language” toward a player.
Boston police were investigating and found a fan threw the bag of peanuts into the dugout and hit a police officer. The male fan was kicked out before he was identified.
In the aftermath, the Red Sox organization and Boston mayor Marty Walsh were quick to apologize, other black players across the league cried out and Jones, a 12year veteran, was thrust into an unfortunate spotlight.
“I’m a grown man with a family to raise. So I’m not just going to let nobody sit there and berate me,” Jones, 31, 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.”
Sox president Sam Kennedy said in a statement the team has “zero tolerance for such inexcusable behavior” and told reporters there would be extra security around the park for Tuesday’s game.
“Our entire organization and our fans are sickened by the conduct of an ignorant few,” Kennedy said.
After the reassuring moment and Jones’ strikeout, order was restored. Sale threw behind Manny Machado, part of an escalating feud between the Red Sox and Orioles, and the teams were enemies again.
“I lost my respect for that organization, Boston and how they’re handling that whole situation,” he said. “If they’re going to hit me, hit me. Go ahead. Get it over with. Don’t keep lingering it around and doing that. I’ve lost mad respect for that team and that organization.”