So the news hit yesterday that Jarren Duran, an outfielder for the Red Sox who is also this year's All-Star Game MVP, hurled a homophobic slur at a fan who was heckling him. The news has increased today, and it's being met with Red Sox fans defending Duran and making him out to be a victim of a "bullying" fan. Oh boy. Some have actually applauded Duran and one clown said that Duran was a "bad-a**." So what were the "mean" and "horrible" words uttered by this "big, bad bully" of a fan? Here they are:

"Tennis racket, tennis racket, you need a tennis racket."

Basically what that fan was simply saying was that Duran can't hit. That's all. And that's what somehow triggered Duran to hurl that slur at him, because "only big fat meanies would say that you can't hit." Oh boy.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Red Sox fans are defending this. After all, Red Sox and bigotry go together like the Yankees and winning championships...or like Donald Trump and a bad hairpiece. That same fanbase hurled racial slurs towards players such as Adam Jones (then with the Baltimore Orioles) and CC Sabathia (then with the then-named Cleveland Indians), and here's a trivial note:  the Boston Red Sox didn't integrate until 1959--twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color barrier. They were the last of the 16 teams who existed at that time to actually integrate. So yeah, Red Sox fans defending Duran's use of a homophobic slur doesn't surprise me one bit.

And for the people who are actually vilifying the fan, let's get one thing straight:  heckling has been part of sports for God-knows how long. As long as the fan didn't resort to personal cheap shots (talking about a player's wife and family), make any violent threats, or say anything bigoted, it's all good. The fan's comments didn't qualify under any of those negative qualities. And if Duran had simply either ignored the fan or responded with a non-bigoted shot of his own, that would have been fine. Hell, calling the fan a "dumb motherf**ker" would have been fine. Instead, he went the bigoted route, and based on how casual he said it, methinks this isn't his first time saying this. That shows me that a) he's always been bigoted, and b) he's immensely thin-skinned to resort to anything like that. Black and Latinx players have received much worse than Duran, but you don't see them going off the handle like that, mainly because if players of color actually did call out racist fans, it would be the players of color being called "soft" and "snowflakes" while the racist fan's "free speech" would be defended.

As I said, heckling is part of sports. Bigotry isn't, or at least, it shouldn't be. And now it's out that Duran will be suspended just two games starting immediately. This was an in-house punishment, because the Red Sox said that they would handle it themselves. Even so, this is a slap on the wrist. Had MLB handled it, it would have been much more. Jarren Duran was completely wrong for what he said. He didn't have to resort to hurling a bigoted slur. He chose to do that. And the Red Sox chose to give him a soft punishment, because that team has condoned bigotry for decades.

Thank God I'm a Yankees fan.