Is it worthy of national attention when one idiot in a crowd of 35,000 — one social misfit corroded by hatred and bereft of the least civility — shouts the N-word down at the opposing team’s outfielder?
Yes. Oh, hell yes.
It merits all of the outrage and condemnation and discourse that results.
An e-mailer wrote to me, “Much ado about nothing!! Much ado about an isolated incident!!”
Wrong, wrong. It isn’t nothing; it’s an affront. In this case it wasn’t just one fan. And it isn’t an isolated incident, as we have been reminded in the days since Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was subject to that racial epithet Monday night at Fenway Park.