Former N.C. State baseball star and current Nationals shortstop Trea Turner has apologized for using homophobic slurs and racially insensitive language on his Twitter account while he was playing for the Wolfpack in 2011 and '12.
The old tweets surfaced on social media on Sunday night and put the 25-year-old Washington Nationals shortstop in the spotlight. Two other major-league players, Milwaukee pitcher Josh Hader and Atlanta pitcher Sean Newcomb, have had similar offensive comments from their Twitter accounts resurface this month.
"There are no excuses for my insensitive and offensive language on Twitter," Turner said in a statement released by the Nationals. "I am sincerely sorry for those tweets and apologize wholeheartedly. I believe people who know me understand those regrettable actions do not reflect my values or who I am. But I understand the hurtful nature of such language and am sorry to have brought any negative light to the Nationals organization, myself or the game I love."
Newcomb was in the midst of a bid for a no-hitter on Sunday night when his racially offensive tweets from 2011 were brought to light by the Twitter account of a Washington Nationals fan.
An account of an Atlanta Braves fan took a screen shot of Turner's old tweets, from Nov. 2011 and Jan. 2012, in response.
Hader was the first big-league player to get in the social-media spotlight when his tweets with racial slurs surfaced during the MLB All-Star Game on July 18.
Turner, a first-round pick out of N.C. State in 2014, is in his fourth season with the Nationals. He helped the Wolfpack reach the College World Series in 2013 and is the school's career leader in stolen bases.
