BOSTON – The Boston Red Sox suspended Jarren Duran for two games on Monday without pay after he shouted a homophobic slur to a fan behind home plate who heckled him in a loss to the Houston Astros a day earlier.
The exchange was caught on a live microphone during the broadcast when Duran — who was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts at that point in the game — was at the plate in the sixth inning. A fan at Fenway Park can be heard shouting “Tennis racket! Tennis racket! You need a tennis racket!”
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Duran turned his head toward the fan and replied: “Shut up,” followed by a curse word and the slur.
Duran issued an apology through the team Sunday night, saying he “used a truly horrific word” and felt “awful.”
Standing in the middle of the clubhouse before he answered questions Monday, Duran started by apologizing to fans that he said reached out to him and said: “they were disappointed in me.”
“I’m sorry for my actions, and I’m going to work on being better,” the 27-year-old outfielder said.
“We all love Jarren,” teammate Rob Refsnyder said after hitting a walk-off single in Boston's 5-4, 10-inning win over Texas on Monday night. “He'll learn from this. We're all human. We all make mistakes, but he'll learn from this.”
President and Chief Executive Officer Sam Kennedy said the club was in touch with Major League Baseball after the game.
“It’s a really difficult day, disappointing,” Kennedy said, speaking to the media outside the clubhouse. “I’m proud of the way the organization addressed the situation, and I’m proud of Jarren for acknowledging his horrific mistake.”
Standing next to Kennedy, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said the team still had work to do.
“I think it is striking evidence that while we have made strides and done great work, we haven’t done nearly enough,” he said. “I think that an incident like this is an important reminder that there’s ton of progress that still needs to be made.”
Duran said the fan had been “heckling me the entire game, and I said something I shouldn’t have said.”
Duran said he immediately turned and apologized to home plate umpire Jordan Baker and Houston catcher Yainer Diaz “for my actions. They were right there, they heard me say it. I’m assuming they cut the mic because of my inappropriate word.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said: “There’s a lot of work to be done, and I’m here to help him out.”
Cora said he had spoken to Duran during the day.
“He made a big mistake, he’s living with it, right,” Cora said. “As a manager, I’ve got to do my job. As a person, there’s more from my end. … It’s what I can do as a person to support him and help him to be better.”
Duran had played in all of the team's games so far this season, hitting mostly leadoff and is one of the club's top players, batting .291 with 14 homers and 58 RBIs. He was the MVP of the All-Star game in Texas, the fifth Red Sox player to win the award.
He said there was no intent behind the word, and it was just “the heat of the moment.”
“I think what’s more important is what happens going forward,” Kennedy said. “We’ve worked really hard the past two and half decades to make sure that Fenway Park is a place where everyone is welcome.”
Boston said Duran’s salary during the suspension will be donated to PFLAG (Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Duran earns $760,000 and will lose $8,172.
The exchange with the fan came after Duran was honored during a pregame ceremony as the team’s recipient of the Heart and Hustle Award, which recognizes one player per team who “demonstrates a passion for the game and best embodies its values, spirit, and traditions.”
“I think the suspension is just discipline, and we need to hold people accountable,” Kennedy said. “What I would like to see is more education, more understanding, more dialogue around the negative impact of hate speech.”
Because the team suspended him, the Red Sox were allowed to fill his roster spot.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb