Adam Jones: "I thought we moved past that a long time ago"

BOSTON - Orioles center fielder Adam Jones spent about 16 minutes this afternoon standing outside the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park and talking about incidents last night that included racial slurs and a bag of peanuts thrown at him. A hostile environment toward an opponent that turned especially ugly.

Here's a sampling of what he said. I'll pass along more of the interview later:

Asked for details on who yelled the slurs and when it happened: "It's hard to look at someone when you're focused on potential ball being hit in your direction. To pinpoint exactly who, that's damn near impossible. But to hear and understand what I heard, I've got great hearing. We understand that we're the road team and that the fans, they don't need to welcome us. It's all part of the competitive edge for the fan base to tell the opponents, 'You suck. Haha, you struck out.' And various names on your performance, which is completely understandable and in the lines of just how sports works and how fan bases work. So I just heard that all night and then just something that caught my attention. I heard the N-word.

"I get certain reactions when someone says something clever or says something really, really stupid and ignorant, and last night was not clever. It was really stupid and ignorant, so it caught my attention. By the time you look back, you can't tell who says what or who's doing what, so I was just like, 'OK, this is really how it's going to go down here.' "

On whether it was more than one person: "I don't know. It's hard to say exactly who's what, who's voices are where. I'm focused on the game. Dylan Bundy was pitching a hell of a game, so I was focused on that."

On what he'd say if confronted by this person: "Square up. Let's fight and get it over with."

On whether this is a Boston thing: "I'm not going to say all Boston fans are like this. That would be very stupid for me to even mention something like that. My career playing against the Red Sox has been amazing. They support their players. I know the four franchises in this area have been very good, especially in my life, so they expect winning in the New England area, which is understandable and they're very competitive as a fan base, which is understandable also. But things like this don't have a place in the game.

"I mean, I thought we moved past that a long time ago, but obviously what's going on in the real world, things like this, people are outranged and speaking up at an alarming rate. And it's unfortunate I had to be involved in it."

On whether any Red Sox players reached out to him: "I saw Mookie Betts, he tweeted at me. (David) Price texted me this morning. It's pretty awesome. It's bigger than the game. These kinds of things are bigger than the game. This is a game. This isn't life and death. There's bigger issues in the world than a baseball game. It's purely entertainment."

On Price experiencing similar treatment last season: "That's unfortunate. And I've seen that. He was struggling in the playoffs. The playoffs are hard to do well in and they just berated him and called him all kinds of nasty things. To me it makes no sense and it just shows that part of it is individuals' upbringing, part of it is you never know what's going on in their personal life. They could be personally frustrated that day. I don't know. I've got my own issues. It's just completely unfortunate that these kinds of things still happen."

On what he'd like to see done: "Fines. That's not in my realm. Obviously, I'm worried about playing the game. That's something, I think, that will be individually assessed. Certain ballparks, certain rules and regulations. I met with Mr. (John) Henry today. He said if things like this happen, they're going to revoke whoever's tickets they are. I know that tickets here are very sacred. They're passed down through generations and it's hard to get, so stripping people of their right to come to the ballpark, ... that would suck because this is one of the greatest venues to watch a sporting event and people would miss out on it because of some pure stupidity."

On how often he's been called the N-word: "It's a good question. I don't know how (many) fingers or toes I have to keep count. You hear it. It's just unfortunate that someone would resort to trying to bring you down like that and dumb you down by calling you such a name that's just nasty.

"My biggest thing is I just let people be who they are. The reality of it is most won't call it to your face. Most will say it through social media or in the stands. It's just unfortunate.

"I think it's tremendous how the Red Sox, how MLB, how they got ahead of it as soon as possible, as soon as they heard. I know Mr. (Peter) Angelos is well notified of it. My phone's been blowing up this morning. It's just unfortunate."

On Henry talking to him: "I appreciate it greatly. For Mr. Henry to take his time out to talk to me and Buck (Showalter), to get ahead of it, to implement more security, to just try to find a resolve to it. And the hardest thing is finding a resolve because it's a sporting event, it's 40,000 people here. It's hard to pick out a few people who decide to be ignorant. I just like and appreciate that he'd come in and talk to me face to face instead of calling or via text. He expressed his disgust and apologized on behalf of the whole city."

On the frustration of such treatment considering he's a model citizen: "Right. It just sucks. I heard a Bill Russell story today and Bill Russell won 11 championships here. And the things I heard happened to him based solely on his skin color, it's unfortunately, man. Think that you'd get away from that, especially being in sports, you come across all walks of life, you get to change not just my life, but I get to change other people's lives and outlooks on life.

"For something like this, it just shows that people still live in their own world, they still have their own views and some people like to express hatred toward another person and other groups."

Asked again if worse in Boston: ""I'm not going to nitpick and say here's bad. There's a long history of these kinds of incidents in Boston. I've talked to various players of different eras and a lot of things that they told me, I can't say. I think the important thing for everybody to do is go ask the African-Americans of the last 50 years who played baseball in this city and ask them how they were treated.

On what reaction he'd prefer: "I don't care. Boo me, treat me as it's Orioles-Red Sox. I don't want any special treatment. I don't need any special treatment. Treat me as normal. Just keep the racist stuff out of there. Boo me. Tell me I suck. That's what I personally want, because that's how the game is supposed to be. That's how the competitiveness is supposed to be.

"I don't want no love, no support. I don't need all that stuff. I just want the fans to be normal. Enjoy themselves. Cheer on your team, but be respectful of where you're at. You've got little kids around. That's the biggest thing. When you hear these things, I've got two little boys. I don't want my kids to hear this. I've got nieces and nephews that are 10 and 11. How do I explain things like this to them?

"So just watch your surroundings. As Red Sox fans, enjoy the game, cheer on your team, boo the Orioles, please. Enjoy yourself. Have a couple of pops."

Note: Catcher Welington Castillo underwent an MRI today and may be headed to the disabled list. The Orioles are waiting for the results.

The club believes the issue is related more to Castillo's right shoulder than his neck.

A catcher will need to be brought to Boston if Castillo is placed on the 10-day DL.