Adam Jones was subject to a series of ugly, racially-tinged slurs in Boston on Monday night. Is this the wake-up call MLB needs?
Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones is proud of who he is. It’s right there in his Twitter bio for all to see. Melanin. Enough said! Yes, Jones is one of roughly 60 African-American players to start the season on an MLB roster. You do the math — 30 teams, 25 active players per team, fewer than 10 percent black. Because he is outspoken on racial issues and unwilling to ignore what he sees, Jones has become the unofficial spokesman for the few black players still playing in the big leagues.
That makes what happened to him on Monday night in Boston that much more troubling for the game of baseball.
With the Orioles visiting Fenway Park, Jones saw a bag of peanuts and a host of slurs, including the n-word, hurled his way. This is not the first time Jones has encountered racism in Boston or another MLB city. Earlier in his career, a fan in San Francisco hurled a banana at him. In the playoffs last year, he became enraged after racial slurs and a beer can were directed towards Korean outfielder Hyun-Soo Kim.
Jones was willing to be very candid about the pain he felt after hearing the taunts and epithets when addressing the media after his team’s 5-2 win.
"“Tonight was one of the worst,’’ Jones said, slowly exhaling, “it’s different. Very unfortunate. It is what it is, right. I just go out and play baseball.“But it’s unfortunate that people need to resort to those type of epithets to degrade another human being. I’m out there trying to make a living for myself and for my family.“The best thing about myself is that I know how to continue to move on, and still play the game hard. Let people be who they are. Let them show their true colors.’’"
It has become all too common in sports history. African-American athletes have been telling us for years things we do not want to hear or accept. Boston has long had the reputation as one of the most racist cities in the United States. Bill Russell, Torrey Smith, PK Subban, David Price, Joel Ward and countless others have all felt racism on some level when playing in Boston.
How despicable is that? A Hall of Fame NBA star openly referred to his home city as a “flea market for racism.” The Red Sox were the final team in MLB to break the color barrier, waiting 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke through with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
It’s not just Boston, though, that has an issue with race. Black players have been so marginalized within the game of baseball that they have little to no power to speak out on issues. While NFL players were kneeling during the National Anthem last year and NBA players wore t-shirts supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, MLB was silent. Jones saw that too, and it did not sit well with him. His comments calling baseball a “white man’s sport” were drummed up to generate buzz and clicks, but his message cannot be lost.
"“I’ve seen Kaepernick called the N-word,’’ Jones said, “just because he’s being sensitive to what has happened to African-Americans in this country. It’s crazy how when people of color speak up, we’re always ridiculed. But when people that are not of color speak up, it’s their right.“The First Amendment says we have freedom of expression. We’re supposed to be so free, so free. But any time anybody of color speaks up in the United States, for some odd reason, they always get the raw end of the deal. It sucks."
Jones is one of the sharpest observers of the American condition, and when he speaks his mind on racial tensions and social injustices in this country, you had better listen. He pulls no punches, and cares not for how his words are received. For better or worse, he is the voice for the black baseball player in this country, and he shoulders the burden well. But should any athlete have to carry that load? Shouldn’t we want a country where men can play a game for our entertainment without having to block out racist insults from so-called fans?
This ugly incident in Boston speaks to a bigger concern with sporting events in the United States. Going to a game has devolved into an excuse to drink too many beers, act out and hurl insults at professional athletes, all allowed because they paid for those tickets. You cannot walk through the concourse of an MLB stadium without seeing at least one fan stumbling drunk, slurring words and berating passersby.
Jones was right in calling MLB a white man’s game. There are three minority managers in the league. The Orioles play in a predominantly African-American city with one of the highest poverty rates in the country, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at the faces in the crowd or starting lineup.
Those great unwritten rules — that are beloved by so many baseball “purists” — have become a way of enforcing a loose code of racism. They are not targeted at the good ol’ boys from Alabama and Georgia who play the game the right way. Rather, these rules that crack down on displays of emotion and passion on the diamond are pointed squarely at black and Latin players.
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Instead of downplaying and shrugging off Jones’ latest brush with racism, MLB must do something serious to curb boorish behavior of lowest-common-denominator fans in its stadiums. When a fan is ejected for racism, issue a lifetime ban. Too many incidents in one park over the course of a year? Make the offending team forfeit gate receipts. Something must be done, and MLB can no longer afford to be on the sidelines when it comes to racial issues.