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False claim of standing ovation for Red Sox player who used anti-gay slur | Fact check

Joedy McCreary   Paste BN
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The claim: Fans gave standing ovation to Boston Red Sox player who used homophobic slur

An Aug. 14 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a montage of cheering Red Sox fans as Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran steps up to the plate.

“Boston Red Sox crowd gives Jarren Duran a standing ovation in his first at bat since his suspension for calling a fan a (profane, homophobic slur),” the post’s caption reads. “Lol. People are OVER the political correctness nonsense.”

A similar version posted to Instagram received more than 50,000 likes in less than a day before it was deleted. Another shared to X was reposted thousands of times.

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Our rating: False

Duran did not receive a standing ovation, according to published reports and the game broadcast. The Facebook video is a montage of clips from other games.

Video combines clips from three separate Red Sox games

When a heckler suggested Aug. 11 that Duran bat with a tennis racket, the All-Star Game MVP responded by calling the heckler a homophobic slur, and the utterance was picked up by a field microphone. A day later, the Red Sox suspended Duran without pay for two games. He was back in the starting lineup Aug. 14 against the Texas Rangers.

But published reports and the game broadcast make clear the fans at Fenway Park did not greet his first post-suspension at-bat with a standing ovation. The Facebook video purporting to show it is instead a collection of clips from three of the team's previous games.

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The opening line of a Boston Globe story about the game directly counters the claim, stating that “Jarren Duran did not receive an ovation” before his first at-bat. Instead, the story continues, the fans responded with the “usual cheering” expected for a star player. No standing ovation was seen or heard during the New England Sports Network game broadcast or in a clip of the first pitch he faced.

The video posted to Facebook is not from the Aug. 14 game. Rather, it was edited together from clips of three separate games.

  • The opening two shots – one of a cheering man in a Detroit Tigers cap, and another of three fans wearing Red Sox caps – are from the Aug. 13, 2023, broadcast of the ovation given to former Detroit Tigers star Miguel Cabrera before his final career at-bat in Boston. The Peacock watermark from that broadcast is visible in the upper-right corner of the Facebook video. Duran's Aug. 14 return was broadcast on NESN, not Peacock.
  • The clip of Duran adjusting his batting gloves is from Aug. 11 and shows the moment he used the slur, though it is not heard over the applause at that point in the Facebook video.
  • The shots of fans wearing long-sleeved shirts are from a May 2, 2017, video of applause for then-Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones. In the Facebook video, the announcer is heard saying, “I’d say maybe half the fans right now are giving Adam a standing ovation.”

Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who shared the video but did not immediately receive a response.

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