Albert Breer Wants Proof That Adam Jones Was Recipient of a Racial Slur at Fenway Park

Adam Jones said that he was “called the N-word a handful of times” at last night’s game at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. He also said a fan threw a bag of peanuts at him, and that he heard that about 60 people were ejected from the game last night.

The Baltimore centerfielder, who was also a starter on the USA team that just won the World Baseball Classic, is one of the most prominent African-American players in the league, at a time when MLB is trying to address the dearth of African-Americans at key positions. Back in September, Jones called baseball “a white man’s sport” in regard to questions about Colin Kaepernick and whether a protest could ever happen in baseball.

Albert Breer, writer with MMQB and Boston-area native, does not accept Jones’ claim of racist slurs at Fenway and wants other proof.

Is it horrible to want some proof? I dunno. I've probably been to 200 games at Fenway in my life. Never heard a slur yelled at a player. https://t.co/Nq29ijPrzy

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 2, 2017

It is at this point that we should say that Adam Jones saying that fans yelled it at him is evidence, just like one could testify in court before the invention of smartphones. It’s evidence that a person can choose to accept or not. We don’t have to go into larger discussions of Boston or other cities.

Breer is also engaging with Bomani Jones of ESPN on his position that he needs proof to believe Jones had a slur yelled at him.

@bomani_jones Not what I'm saying. It's just frustrating when there is no physical evidence of something that is supposedly a rampant problem. That's all.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 2, 2017

The Boston Red Sox organization, satisfied that the incident did occur, is taking a different position and has already apologized, via USA Today, for the “conduct of an ignorant few.”

“The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night,” the Red Sox said in a statement released to USA TODAY Sports and other outlets. “No player should have an objec
t 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.”

The Mayor of Boston and Governor of Massachusetts have also apologized.

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

from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/2pF6UPP