Blue Jays OF Alex Rios apologizes for swearing at fan in tirade caught on YouTube

By AP
Saturday, June 6, 2009

Jays’ Rios apologizes for tirade caught on YouTube

TORONTO — Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios apologized Friday after he was caught on video yelling profanities at a fan.

The incident, which was posted on YouTube, happened Thursday night as Rios was leaving a gala dinner for the Blue Jays’ charity.

Rios is seen walking to his car along with a woman after the event when he appears to ignore an autograph request from a young fan. An older man yells at Rios, saying “The way you played today Alex, you should be lucky somebody wants your autograph.”

Rios responds with a profanity, then swears again after the fan calls him “a bum.”

Rios struck out five times in five at-bats in a 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday. He matched a club record by striking out in seven consecutive at-bats and is 0 for his last 10.

He apologized before batting practice for Friday’s game against Kansas City, saying “I lost my cool.”

“I just want to apologize for the situation that happened yesterday at the gala,” Rios said. “I just want to apologize to my fans, to the team, to my teammates, because it was something I should have never done. It was a bad reaction on my side.”

“That’s not the person that I am,” he said. “You shouldn’t act like that, even if there’s sites like that or people following you, trying to make you say bad things, you shouldn’t act like that.”

Rios acknowledged that frustration with his poor performance Thursday led to the incident.

“It was a long day,” Rios said. “I kicked myself, I couldn’t help the team win. It was just bad.”

Rios is batting .266 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs for Toronto, which had lost 12 of 15 to fall from first to third in the AL East.

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