MLB News
Any professional athlete who plays in Boston will tell you of an underlying strain of racist thought that periodically seeps through cracks in the polite veneer.
On Monday night, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones heard it as his team played the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The N-word. Directed at him. Along with a bag of peanuts thrown at him. It’s difficult to say which was worse – that it happened again, or that it happened at all.
“I thought we’d moved past this a long time ago,” Jones said before Tuesday night’s game.
I think he was just being polite. The insults, the degradation of black athletes has a long tradition in Boston. Former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes periodically railed about the “racist city of Boston.” New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia observed that Boston’s proclivity for racial taunts is always in the minds of baseball’s few black major leaguers.
“We know. There are 62 of us, and we all know that when you go to Boston, expect it,’’ Sabathia said. “I have never been called the N-word anywhere else.’’
MLB apologized for the verbal assault on Jones. The Red Sox’s front office apologized. Fans even cheered Jones as he stepped to the plate for the first time on Tuesday night.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred promised a crackdown on unacceptable fan behavior and said in a statement: “The behavior of these few ignorant individuals does not reflect the millions of great baseball fans who attend our games.”
It’s rarely about the many and usually about the few. Now how do we get the many to influence the few? How do we make the few even fewer? What year is this, anyway?
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman
John Stamos and Bob Saget Remember Don Rickles
-
Oklahoma and Texas will depart from the college sports conference at the end of the season. The Big 12...
-
Robert Kraft wants to re-sign Brady just long enough that he can retire as a Patriot. Earlier this week,...
-
The skilled third-baseman will be enshrined in Cooperstown. Scott Rolen is one of the most skilled and recognized third-basemen...
-
Brady’s 23rd football season has ended. On Monday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys went head-to-head for...
-
Smith has been fired after one season with the team. Over the weekend, the owners of the Houston Texans...
-
Pelé passed due to complications related to colon cancer. On Thursday night, the sporting world received unfortunate news: Pelé,...
-
His return heralded a victory over the Phoenix Suns. On Sunday, Houston Rockets coach Stephen Silas needed to take...
-
Mayfield will be available on waiver to other NFL teams. After an underwhelming performance in his current role as...
-
Mike White led the team to a decisive victory over the Bears over the weekend. On Saturday, the New...
-
The game has been moved out of New York due to an encroaching snowstorm. This weekend, the Buffalo Bills...
-
Negative pushback prompted the team to give the role to someone else. Recently, the Brooklyn Nets have been in...
-
The Bears got Claypool in exchange for a 2023 second-round pick. This week, the Pittsburgh Steelers cut a deal...