"The Baltimore Orioles COO has had enough of racism at the ballpark and enough of a society that is breeding more and more hate."

Fenway Park sure isn't unique in this regard, although Boston's franchise in the American League has struggled mightily to exorcise a few past ghosts (it was the last to integrate, in 1959).

‘We Must Actively Stand Up’: John Angelos’s Response to Racism at Fenway Park, by Dave Zirin (The Nation)

The Baltimore Orioles COO has had enough of racism at the ballpark and enough of a society that is breeding more and more hate.

On Monday night, a large group of “fans” at Boston’s Fenway Park called Baltimore Orioles All-Star outfielder Adam Jones a n—– from the outfield seats, and one threw a bag of peanuts at him. The incident has provoked widespread uproar. Here is an exclusive comment about the incident from Baltimore Orioles COO John Angelos. People may remember Angelos from his intensely just and political response to the killing of Freddie Gray while Gray was in police custody in 2015. The below needs to be read and reread.

For what it is worth and since you asked, and speaking as one man and for myself here, my thoughts on incidents of this sad and tragic kind, and what they represent today are the following:

It is a tragic reflection of the sickness that today afflicts aspects of our society that we are reminded seemingly every day now of the demented hatreds, prejudices, and biases expressed in certain circles of our community around race, sex, national origin, ethnicity, religious following, sexual orientation, and other coincidences of birth and of living life. The increasing frequency with which these individual incidents spew forth into our public domain and the increasing number of newly formed hate groups that echo these individual episodes and their themes strongly suggests the rise of an increasingly militant and unrestrained sect of our citizenry emboldened in expressing publicly their private contempt for our neighbors, friends, and family members ...

Bernie Carbo's brightest baseball moment, 40 years ago tonight.

40 years ago tonight, Bernie Carbo made possible Carlton Fisk's legendary World Series home run.

But what wasn't known at the time was Carbo's condition -- not just for Game Six of the 1975 World Series, but virtually every game he played in his big league career.

Yes, that's right: Baseball's substance abuse scandals did not begin during the steroid era. In 1970, Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" arguably offered the first public confirmation of drugs in baseball, primarily alcohol and greenies (amphetamines), although Doc Ellis memorably insisted that he pitched a no hitter while journeying on LSD.

By the mid 1980s, it was cocaine -- and Enos Cabell remarked in court that it made him a better player. Doubtless, Carbo would disagree.

I was watching this game back in '75, none the wiser that Carbo had spent the day drinking beer and smoking dope. Cubs fans, take note: It required four World Series appearances by the Red Sox between titles, so get out there, pay your dues, and ... wait, what's that?

You've been to the World Series how many times since 1908?

Seven?

Never mind.

As for the decade of the 1970s, see the Big Hair and Plastic Grass web site. I also blogged about this book in 2013: Big Hair and Plastic Grass. Get a copy and read it. It's richly entertaining.

Today's Tribune column: "BAYLOR: Boston’s monstrously green Fenway."

It was my first-ever visit to Boston. Did we really have to come back?

BAYLOR: Boston’s monstrously green Fenway.

What better place than New England, original settling ground of the Colonists, to view the American version of the old British game — moreover, in Boston, birthplace of the American Revolution?

And what better venue for being taken out to the ballgame than Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox since William Howard Taft resided in the White House?