"CF B.J. Upton said he was glad to see manager Joe Maddon and his teammates come to his defense Sunday when a fan yelled a racial slur from the stands during the game against the Orioles.

"It's good to see guys have your back like that. Joe wasn't the only one. There were a number of guys up there," Upton said. "I was too busy worried about the slider I swung and missed out of the zone. I heard what he said, but I wasn't really worried about it, but for me to turn around and see all those guys on the top step defending me, man that's pretty cool."

Upton had just struck out in the sixth inning when the fan yelled something that Upton didn't want to repeat. At the request of Maddon, the fan was ejected from Charlotte Sports Park.

Upton said it's not unusual to hear racial remarks from the stands.

"You hear it. You hear it all the time," he said. "I know I hear it in the outfield, I hear things like in the outfield in some places, but I think (Sunday) was an instance where more than one person got to hear it, not just me. … There's 30, 40,000 people in the stands you're bound to hear it. It's 2011, you know what I mean, but it is what it is. Freedom of speech, I guess.""