Orioles' Adam Jones berated by racist taunts at Fenway Park

[LarryHarlow]

I'm going on Thursday and will be in CF bleachers behind Jones.  I've got no qualms about ratting out anyone.  CF bleachers in Fenway are weird in that the amount of rows taper off and they usually don't station an usher or cop nearby.. maybe they will now.

Most people in Boston are good people.  Racism isn't prevalent, but it does exist in pockets unfortunately.

[Rich Mac]

I seriously question the effectiveness of lifetime bans in ballparks. It's a punishment with no real bite.

You have 20-30 thousand people walking into a ballpark every night. No one checks ID. I really doubt anyone is seriously studying faces. Each ballpark probably has thousands of morons that have been banned over the years, who can remember all of those faces?

I'm sure many people that have been banned just continue to go with complete disregard. You have to remember that they were stupid enough to get kicked in the first place, so they probably aren't worried about the threat of a misdemeanor Criminal Trespass if they are the one in a million that get caught. In fact, is there any documentation of anyone ever getting caught trying to get back into a park after being banned for life?

There should be a different punishment for this kind of inexcusable behavior. I really don't have an answer myself. Maybe some sort of public shaming? I just feel that the threat of getting kicked out of the stadium on that particular night is not deterrence enough.

[DoughBoy52]

8 hours ago, baltimore_chop said:

And people wonder why Adam said this was still a white man's game. There were 42 African American's on rosters at the beginning of this season, and those guys (along with Hispanic dudes as well) will have to deal with the pure foolishness that none of the white players have to deal with. Anybody who shot down Adam Jones' comments from last year now knows EXACTLY what he was talking about.

A couple of years ago I read an article with some charts that showed that MLB is actually the closest representation of US race demographics of all the major sports leagues. I can't find it now, so I just looked up that African Americans make up 12.2% of the US population. It's lower, but not too far off from 42 active out of 750. It's really not much more of a minority than the general population. Maybe NFL and NBA sitting in the backs of our minds skew our perspective on MLB's composition. I just found the whole thing to be interesting. 

 

Regardless, awful that that happened to Adam. 

[LarryHarlow]

FWIW, I've been to about 100 Fenway games in my life.  Only once have I heard openly racist epithets being shouted (someone was shouting racial slurs at Raffy Palmeiro--it clearly bothered him and he made an error). The guy was eventually tossed, but it took too long.  

I haven't heard anything like that in the other 99% of games I've been to, which isn't to say that it doesn't happen.

[Rene88]

23 minutes ago, DoughBoy52 said:

A couple of years ago I read an article with some charts that showed that MLB is actually the closest representation of US race demographics of all the major sports leagues. I can't find it now, so I just looked up that African Americans make up 12.2% of the US population. It's lower, but not too far off from 42 active out of 750. It's really not much more of a minority than the general population. Maybe NFL and NBA sitting in the backs of our minds skew our perspective on MLB's composition. I just found the whole thing to be interesting. 

 

Regardless, awful that that happened to Adam. 

Go on....where are you going with this?

Breaking news: the fan has been identified as Steve Clevenger. 

[maybenxtyr]

It is a shame that this happened to Jones but to put a whole city or group down because of a few is equally as bad. Hopefully the fans will be identified and removed. Also, I hope Adam continues to rise above and be a leader in and off of the field.

[clapdiddy]

Just now, maybenxtyr said:

It is a shame that this happened to Jones but to put a whole city or group down because of a few is equally as bad. Hopefully the fans will be identified and removed. Also, I hope Adam continues to rise above and be a leader in and off of the field.

I have no doubt about this.  Jones is obviously the leader of this team...and I'd say probably one of the leaders of MLB as a whole.   Look at his fire and passion in the WBC.   He's the man.

[baltimore_chop]

For the person that brought up the percentages of African Americans in MLB and the US, it just further cements my point that there are a good amount of white folks who still see the country as "their country",  and baseball as "their sport". That's why it saddened me when people, even on THIS site called for Adam to be off the team when he's done NOTHING but be the leader of this team, the USA squad, and contribute to the Baltimore community in many different ways. THIS is what he was talking about; doing everything right, showing nothing but class, being a leader on and off the field, being an ambassador for Baltimore and the Orioles, and STILL being seen as less than human. Absolutely sickening.

[DJHJR86]

Not surprised.  It is Boston after all.

The only positive thing was that the people were thrown out, so I'd have to assume that other fans pointed them out to the staff.

[Rene88]

6 minutes ago, baltimore_chop said:

For the person that brought up the percentages of African Americans in MLB and the US, it just further cements my point that there are a good amount of white folks who still see the country as "their country",  and baseball as "their sport". That's why it saddened me when people, even on THIS site called for Adam to be off the team when he's done NOTHING but be the leader of this team, the USA squad, and contribute to the Baltimore community in many different ways. THIS is what he was talking about; doing everything right, showing nothing but class, being a leader on and off the field, being an ambassador for Baltimore and the Orioles, and STILL being seen as less than human. Absolutely sickening.

Too many minorities make people feel uncomfortable I guess? Or hard to relate? I would love to see where they were going with that....

I wonder if they feel that way about hockey where most players are from the Kremlin (a.k.a-Trump's administration) and pastey white.

[DoughBoy52]

38 minutes ago, Rene88 said:

Go on....where are you going with this?

Breaking news: the fan has been identified as Steve Clevenger. 

Ha, Clevenger. 

Not really going anywhere. It was an interesting read that relates to characterizing it as a white man's game.

I should have known someone was going to jump on me for posting it...

[Going Underground]

12 minutes ago, DJHJR86 said:

Not surprised.  It is Boston after all.

The only positive thing was that the people were thrown out, so I'd have to assume that other fans pointed them out to the staff.

Could happen in any city. Idiots who think it is ok to just shout stupid crap at players because  they are so tough in the stands. Throwing things even worse. I have been to 50 Red Sox games ,at least and never heard this. 

Red Sox officials confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that a fan threw a bag of peanuts at Jones, and was ejected from the ballpark. They were investigating the total amount of people who were ejected from the game, but believed it was about half the amount for a variety of violations.

So Jones said 60 and they say half. 30 people thrown out of a stadium seems really high and people are really stupid.

[DoughBoy52]

10 minutes ago, baltimore_chop said:

For the person that brought up the percentages of African Americans in MLB and the US, it just further cements my point that there are a good amount of white folks who still see the country as "their country",  and baseball as "their sport". That's why it saddened me when people, even on THIS site called for Adam to be off the team when he's done NOTHING but be the leader of this team, the USA squad, and contribute to the Baltimore community in many different ways. THIS is what he was talking about; doing everything right, showing nothing but class, being a leader on and off the field, being an ambassador for Baltimore and the Orioles, and STILL being seen as less than human. Absolutely sickening.

Just to be clear, Adam has been one of my favorite O's since he joined the team. Love his personality and effort, and he lays it all out on the field. He's the heart of the team and I love him. 

So, take my anecdote for what it's worth. It's interesting discussion. 

[atomic]

9 hours ago, Norfolk orioles said:

Boston is the toilet bowl of the country.

 

It's easily more racist than any city in the south, which integrated decades ago. 

 

Obviously racism exists in both areas (as it does in places like Chicago, Cleveland, etc.) but Boston is the type of place where bigots feel so comfortable being bigoted that they can yell stuff like this in public and feel like no one is going to care.

 

Truly the worst of the worst, I can't stand the city, the people or any of their sports teams.

 

Easily the team/fanbase I hate the most in all of sports. The worst part is they are all a bunch of bandwagon jumpers too. You couldn't find 10 Red Sox/patriots fans at a sports bar in the mid 90's. Now they are everywhere spreading their filth and racism.

Boston is a great town.  Is everyone from Baltimore bad because of the guys who assaulted the Yankees fan or the guys who attacked the fans outside the stadium during the riot?   The fans were thrown out of the game and got a stadium ban according to Adam.  It seems like the Red Sox have handled this well.  

[MDK02]

Listening to sports radio this morning.. I heard a good amount of callers from Boston say that this does seem to be an ongoing thing at that city's sporting events. Not just baseball but hockey, as well. It's a real shame.

Something needs to be done to hold these people accountable. I've never heard it first hand but I'm sure it goes on in more places than Boston, I think they should start calling these people out in public and maybe that'll make them think twice about saying such things.