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First, sending a message on social media, Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks has spoken about the death threats he and other players have received, which he cites as an ongoing problem in sports. While fans being fed up by players on the Red Sox and other teams is par for the course, leading to death threats is where it vastly crosses the line, as a lot of cases nowadays connect to sports betting.
Hendriks spoke to the media Friday about the topic and how it's become a “daily occurrence” for the team and how it has “gotten a lot worse” because of betting, according to The Athletic.
“This is almost a daily occurrence for almost everyone in this clubhouse,” Hendriks said. “That’s the upsetting part, and it’s not being controlled in the right way. This is continuing to happen, whether it be through Instagram, whether it be through Twitter or TikTok, or any of the social media apps, or anything like that, it’s not being handled by any which way. At some point, something’s got to break, and it better not be any of the guys that are receiving this stuff.”
“With the rise of sports gambling, it’s gotten a lot worse,” Hendriks said. “Whether it be Venmo requests, whether it be people telling you in their comments, ‘Hey, you blew my parlay. Go f— yourself’ kind of s—. And then it’s, ‘Go hang yourself. You should kill yourself. I wish you died from cancer.’ That one kind of hit a little too close to home for me with everything I’ve gone through.”
Red Sox's Liam Hendriks says “enough is enough”
As Hendriks is seen as a huge boost for the Red Sox bullpen, he has also been the target of many death threats that he's labeled as “vile” that target his family and even his previous diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Fortunately, he has since been cancer-free and now stands his ground against the death threats towards him and other players in the MLB.
“Enough is enough,” Hendriks said. “At some point, everyone (the players) just sucking it up and dealing with it isn’t accomplishing anything. We pass it along to MLB Security. We pass it along to whoever we need to. But nothing ends up happening, and it happens again the next night. And so, at some point, someone has to make a stand. And it’s one of those things where the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it, hopefully it can push it in the right direction. We can get something pushed across.”
It remains to be seen what possible further action Hendriks or the MLB will take on this issue.
