BOSTON – Boston Red Sox coach Tommy Harper said Tuesday he will accept an apology from the manager at a Baltimore hotel where he claimed he was harassed when the team stayed there on its season-opening road trip.

Harper, 60, was sitting near the team bags in the hotel lobby last Thursday when a Red Sox fan struck up a conversation with him. Harper, who is black, said a hotel security guard came up and began questioning him but not the fan, who is white.

Asked whether he thought he was singled out because he is black, Harper said, "Obviously, yes."

"I'm 60 years old. I don't react to every slight," he said Tuesday before Boston's game against the Orioles at Fenway Park. "... I don't get out of bed every day thinking about the '60s. I just go forward every day treating people with respect, and I get respect in return."

Harper said he had not seen the apology, which was sent to the team by William Walsh, general manager of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said Walsh apologized for the "unprofessional manner" in which Harper was treated.

"This type of behavior is not tolerated and I promise you the necessary corrective action will take place," Shea quoted Walsh as writing.

Walsh declined to comment Tuesday.

Harper was a Red Sox coach in 1984 when he complained that the Elks Club in Winter Haven, Fla., where the team spent spring training, left passes for white players and coaches, but not blacks. Harper was fired and sued the team for racial discrimination; the suit was settled.

Harper was rehired in January 2000.

Harper said he was angry but not surprised when the white security guard approached him, followed by two other guards. They asked if he was a guest at the hotel and Harper answered that he was, but had just checked out.

When Harper balked at answering more questions, the guard asked him to leave. Harper said a black security guard eventually interceded, and the first security guard left.

Shea said the team called the hotel from the visiting clubhouse in Baltimore, as soon as Harper related what had happened.

"We voiced our extreme displeasure and our extreme dismay," he said.

The Red Sox have two more trips scheduled to Baltimore, and they are under contract with the same hotel. Harper said he would have no problem staying there in the future.

"This was just someone who handled the situation totally wrong. It is one individual," he said. "I don't expect the Red Sox to cancel the contract or anything like that."