Watching Adam Jones react to the beer tossed onto the field as Hyun Soo Kim made a catch in the AL Wild Card game, I thought there might be something more going on:

Adam Jones says he and fellow Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim were the targets of racial slurs after a fan threw a can of beer at Kim during Tuesday’s American League wild-card game against the Blue Jays, according to USA Today.

“I’ve heard that so much playing baseball, call me what you want, I don’t care,” Jones told media after the game. “You hear everything, we can hear everything, people cussing you, flipping you off, that’s fine, but to go out of character, put us in harm’s way … we’re here to play baseball, nothing more, nothing less and put us in harm’s way, that’s not part of the game, not part of any sport.”

The article also reviews the other beer throwing incidents at Rogers Center.

My father tells me a story about a Tigers game at Yankee Stadium that took place before World War II. There was a call that went against the Yankees (I think it might have been a ball on the foul line) that set off the fans. At the time, the stadium sold beer in cans. Fans started littering the field with beer cans. My father told me because of that game, beers were then sold in cups. I remember my first game there in 1969. The beer vendors carried cans, but would open them, pour them into cups, and give the cup to the fan.

I was surprised when teams went back to selling plastic bottles some time ago. I can buy a 20 ounce Coke in a plastic bottle at Fenway and keep the cap. That’s a pretty dangerous item if the cap is left on and thrown, but as far as I know, no incidents like that have taken place at Fenway. Maybe it’s time for the Blue Jays to go back to paper cups.