Maddon responds to racism claims: 'Stupid people everywhere'

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon isn't happy about claims his outfielder, Jason Heyward, was the victim of racial taunts Monday night in St. Louis.

"There's small-minded people everywhere, man," Maddon told CSN Chicago's Patrick Mooney. "There are stupid people everywhere. It's not unique to one spot and one ballpark. We've come a long way but then again we haven't. So none of it surprises if in fact it was true."

Heyward denied hearing any specific racial slurs in his return to St. Louis, but clearly the situation is bothering Maddon, who had a racist fan ejected from a game in 2011 for slurs directed towards Melvin Upton.

The Cardinals reaffirmed their ushers would "act swiftly" to remove fans that use racist language at the ballpark, and that they weren't aware of any such occurrence at Busch Stadium on Monday.