Red Sox Apologize To Orioles' Adam Jones After Alleged Racial Epithets

Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said Tuesday that he's used to being heckled by fans at away games, but when he heard racial epithets targeted at him during Monday night's O's win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park, he felt the need to speak up.

"Things like this, they just don't have a place in the game," Jones told reporters at Fenway before Tuesday night's game. "I thought we moved past that a long time ago."

Jones, who is African-American, told USA Today that he was "called the N-word a handful of times" during Monday's game.

Jones also said a bag of peanuts was thrown at him.

"The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night," team President Sam Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday morning. "No player should have an object 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."

Kennedy added that the team's review of Monday night's events is "ongoing."

Speaking on WEEI-FM, Kennedy said there were 34 ejections from the game, and the average is 12 to 15 a game.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker called the alleged incidents "unacceptable."

"This is unacceptable and not who we are as a city," Walsh said in a statement. "These words and actions have no place in Fenway, Boston, or anywhere. We are better than this."

Said Baker in a tweet:

Baker later told reporters that if it were up to him, he'd permanently ban the offending fan, or fans, from the park.

Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston chapter of the NAACP, told WBUR's Newscast unit that her biggest concern is that someone thought saying the slur was acceptable.

"It illuminates this subculture that exists here in and around the city of Boston where someone would believe that they could go to Fenway Park in a crowded stadium and use this racially charged language and not be held accountable," Sullivan said.

On Twitter, Red Sox star Mookie Betts, who's also black, urged fans to stand up to racism at Fenway when the teams play again Tuesday night. Jones then thanked Betts in a tweet.

The teams finish their four-game series Wednesday and Thursday evenings.