Jarren Duran, the 27-year-old star outfielder for the Boston Red Sox was back on the field Wednesday night after he was caught responding to a fan at a home game last Sunday with the words “f*cking f*aggot.”
That day, during the game’s sixth inning. an unidentified heckler yelled, “You need a tennis racket!”
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Then, an outfield mic caught the 6′ 2″ left-hander uttering the offensive slur.
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Duran was suspended for two games without pay and agreed to undertake sensitivity training.
“It’s still something I’m feeling terrible about,” he said on Wednesday.
NESN mics picked up Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran calling a heckling fan a “f*cking f*****” during Sunday’s game
The Red Sox announced the suspension on Monday and said Duran’s salary from the two missed games would be donated to PFLAG. Duran issued an apology following Sunday night’s match-up with the Astros. The Red Sox lost the game, 2-10.
“I used a truly horrific word when responding to a fan. I feel awful knowing how many people I offended and disappointed,” he said. “I apologize to the entire Red Sox organization, but more importantly to the entire LGBTQ+ community. Our young fans are supposed to be able to look up to me as a role model but tonight I fell far short of that responsibility.”
Sunday night’s game included a Youth Sports Program event called Kids Run the Bases.
Duran’s teammate Liam Hendriks, the Red Sox relief pitcher and a well-known LGBTQ+ ally, came to Duran’s defense following the suspension.
“This isn’t something he does consistently or anything like that. It wasn’t demeaning in any way. It’s just unfortunately a word that is used in times of frustration and that needs to be eradicated,” Henricks told told The Boston Globe.
“It’s not like he’s an anti-LGBT guy or anything like that. It’s that he had a slip of the tongue and said the wrong word. We’re going to get past this as a team,” Hendricks continued, adding, “[The slur] had nothing to do with that community.”
Duran has struggled with mental health issues in the past, according to Outsports baseball columnist Ken Schultz, but Hendricks excusing the player’s outburst as a “slip of the tongue” misses the point.
“In that instance where Duran lost control, he went immediately to hate speech,” Schultz wrote. “His on-camera slur revealed there is still a part of him that reverts to homophobic bigotry when he loses it.”
“Having a teammate come to his aid by telling us that anti-gay slurs are not about our community,” Schultz added, “feels like gaslighting.”
