Including myself, there were maybe 10 people surrounding Adam Jones at his Yankee Stadium locker conducting a brief group interview about the Baltimore Orioles’ most productive game of the season.
Among the topics asked and answered during a four-minute session, included was it nice to breakout with 14 runs, was it good to have this kind of game after being close. Or does hitting in warmer weather make things different than hitting in cooler temperatures.
Jones produced good answers to those questions but his strongest commentary came at the end of the session. That was when he was asked what he said to two fans who ran onto the field at Yankee Stadium during the eighth inning.
Not only did Jones answer the question, he delivered the goods with a brutally honest answer.
“I let them know how I felt, obviously a lot of choice words because I think it’s idiotic for people to run on the field, and I think the punishment needs to be a lot harsher and they should let us have a shot to kick them with our metal spikes on because it’s stupid,” Jones said. “You look like a jackass when you run on the field. We don’t go to any other events. We don’t go to other sporting events and do that to their jobs, but they come to ours and do that.”
“I get it, you’re drunk and you want to be on SportsCenter. Your ass is going to jail with a fine, and you might not be allowed to come back to the ballpark. I remember a couple of years ago, one dude broke his ankle in Baltimore. I was laughing at him. I wish he shattered his finger because it’s stupid. It’s just point-blank stupid.”
Fans coming on to the field is nothing new. Most players are stunned and just shake it off.
What should happen to fans who run on the field?
“I wish the cops Tase the living s–t out of them,” he said. “I wish that.”
And that wasn’t the only good quote from Jones, who has a way with words and a sense of humor about it. When talking about facing the opposing pitcher, in this case Ivan Nova, Jones also came through.
“There’s a guy on the mound who has to eat also. You’re going to be battling each other and playing chess and today we were able to get to the queen quicker.
When Jones finished with the chess analogy, he turned to the camera and said “You like that one”.
“We’ve been swinging the bat good, hitting balls right at people,” he said. “You guys want results. I got it. It’s about results. We look at things a little bit differently. All we ask out of everybody is to have a good at-bat and go up there and compete. We know you’re not guaranteed to get a hit. But you can go up there with a good approach. The first eight games of the season, everybody has gone up there with a good approach. You’ve just got to go compete.”
