Red Sox President: No Proof of Torii Hunter's Fenway Story, But We Believe Him
Red Sox President Sam Kennedy told Kirk Minihane on Thursday that the organization has found no record of the incident former Major League Baseball player Torii Hunter has described in recent interviews -- an incident in which several young Red Sox fans shouted racial slurs at him from the audience.
Following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer now charged with murder, Hunter has spoken out about his struggles against racism and racist behavior.
One particularly vivid example from his playing career, Hunter told Boston's WEEI, involved kids.
"[W]hen I went to Boston, it was so consistent," Hunter said. "It really dawned on me when I saw 4 or 5 kids chanting the n-word in the outfield," he said. "And this is my story, it's not a lie."
"I looked at these grown-ups, and they're just pointing and laughing," he said.
In a separate interview Thursday with WEEI, Kennedy said the Red Sox have been keeping records of all fan ejections and reported incidents for a "couple" of years, including the seven such incidents that occurred last year. But when asked whether the team had located records related to the incident described by Hunter, Kennedy said they had not.
MINIHANE: When was it done I suppose. What year did that one happen?
KENNEDY: Torii's comments were related to incidents that happened over a period of years, as we understand it.
MINIHANE: But that specific one, though, do you know when that was?
KENNEDY: No. No, we don't.
MINIHANE: So you're not sure if that actually happened or not.
KENNEDY: That is not an incident that we investigated or have specific proof. But we've had lots of conversations over the years and had conversations Torii. And we believe him and we've got a great relationship with him.
Neither Hunter nor Kennedy have said whether the incident with the children was reported to Fenway security. Nor has Kennedy said whether the incident resulted in any disciplinary action against the children or the adult bystanders. However, Hunter did tell WEEI that other teams had taken strong actions against racist speech and behavior by fans.
"I would get it everywhere like Seattle, Kansas City," Hunter said. "Kansas City once did something for me about it. When they called me the n-word and said it over our dugout, our whole team got up and tried to-- we were almost going to jump this guy, but this guy's kid covered his mouth. And then the police right next to our dug out got up and took him to a back room, they talked to him, interrogated him, and they banned him for life."
You can find the Kirk Minihane Show here and watch the entire interview with Sam Kennedy below: