Oakland Athletics outfielder Matt Joyce on Saturday received a two-game suspension without pay for directing a gay slur toward a fan in Anaheim, California, and he will take part in a public outreach initiative with PFLAG, a family and ally organization supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
Major League Baseball made the announcement, saying Joyce’s penalty was set to begin on Saturday, when he also apologized through the team.
Joyce said he is “beyond sorry,” and the Athletics also made a statement insisting his language was unacceptable and would not be tolerated.
Photo: AP
The Athletic’s are donating more than US$54,000 of Joyce’s lost salary to PFLAG.
“First and foremost I’d like to start by apologizing to everyone, especially the fans, the Oakland A’s, the Bay Area — they’ve been awesome to me — MLB, and obviously, the LGBTQ community, whom I have a lot of respect for,” Joyce said before Saturday’s game. “I’m deeply ashamed and embarrassed at my actions and the language that I did use. It’s very uncharacteristic of me.”
The exchange occurred in the eighth inning of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheims’ 8-6 win after first baseman C.J Cron made a diving stop of Joyce’s hard-hit grounder.
As Joyce returned to the dugout, he uttered several profanities at the fan, called him a gay slur and challenged him to fight, according to Associated Press photographer Mark Terrill, who overheard the exchange.
Terrill said he did not hear the first part of the exchange.
Joyce on Saturday said that at one point he did invite the fan to “meet me outside.”
“I let the emotions and frustrations really get the better of me there. I obviously said some words that should never be said. There’s no excuse, there’s no good excuse for that kind of language to be said and ever used,” Joyce said. “I really hope the people out there can find it in their heart to forgive me and not to be too quick to judge me on one incident. It’s very unfortunate. It’s one of those things I’m obviously going to regret.”
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