Red Sox apologize for fans' racist taunts of Orioles player Adam Jones
Jones, a five-time All-Star, is among baseball's highest-profile black players.
— -- The Boston Red Sox organization issued an apology today after Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones complained that fans directed racist slurs at him during Monday night's game at Fenway Park in Boston.
Jones, a five-time All-Star for the Orioles and one of only 62 African-American players to earn a major league baseball roster spot on opening day this season, reportedly said he was "called the N-word a handful of times” as he stood in the outfield.
In response, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said in a statement, "The Red Sox want to publicly apologize to Adam Jones and the entire Orioles organization for what occurred at Fenway Park Monday night."
"No player should have an object thrown at him on the playing field nor be subjected to any kind of racism at Fenway Park," he added, apparently referring to a bag of peanuts that Jones said a fan threw at him near the dugout. "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 went on to say that it was still reviewing the incident.
The league did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
The Boston Red Sox team has two black outfielders, both of whom made the All-Star team last year: centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and right-fielder Mookie Betts, who is among the league's elite players.
Jones, 31, told USA Today, "It is what it is, right? I just go out and play baseball. It's unfortunate that people need to resort to those type of epithets to degrade another human being. I'm trying to make a living for myself and for my family."
The Orioles defeated the Red Sox in the game, 5-2.
Jones, who debuted with the Seattle Mariners in 2006, has been an outspoken voice in major league baseball's ongoing initiative to recruit more black athletes to play the sport and said he has been a victim of racist abuse.
In 2013 he said a San Francisco Giants fan threw a banana at him — a racist symbol that would be familiar to many black European soccer players who have been targets of the same gesture.