On Friday, Red Sox relief pitcher Liam Hendriks spoke with the media ahead of game one of his team’s double header with the Orioles (16-32) at Fenway Park.
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This press availability comes just one day after posting to his Instagram story about receiving death threats via social media, writing in all caps:
“Just as an FYI: Threats against my life and my wife’s life are horrible and cruel. You need help. Leaving comments telling me to commit suicide and how you wish I died from cancer is disgusting and vile. Maybe you should take a step back and reevaluate your life’s purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families. Whether you do it from your ‘fake accounts’ or are dumb enough to do it from your real account. I think I speak for all players who have had to deal with this in their career when I say: enough is enough.”
On Friday morning from the Red Sox (25-26) clubhouse, Hendriks went into further detail of just how bad things have gotten online for both players and their families.
“Unfortunately, it's rampant within sports,” said Hendriks. “I've had people from different organizations, I've had people in different sports, different codes, reach out about their own experiences with it.
“I mean, I've had people that have had their home addresses leaked. The people - like, it's a lot more deplorable than what we've had. I mean, we've had this in the past where it has gone a lot further into the legal system and all that sort of stuff. But, yeah, this is one of those ones where it's like - this is almost a daily occurrence for almost everyone in this clubhouse. And that's, that's the upsetting part. And it's not being controlled in the right way.
“I mean, this is continuing to happen - whether it be through Instagram, whether it be through Twitter or TikTok or any other social media apps or anything like that. It's not being handled by any which way, and at some point it's something's gotta break. And it better not be any of the guys that are receiving this stuff.”
While Hendriks admits this is something players have been dealing with for years, he believes it’s gotten worse as the laws around sports betting in the U.S. have changed since PASPA was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018.
“With the rise of sports gambling it's gotten a lot worse,” said Hendriks. “Unfortunately, that tends to be what it ends up being. Whether it be Venmo requests, whether it be people telling you in their comments that I was like, ‘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.”
Hendriks is a cancer survivor, being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in January of 2023 while a member of the White Sox. After months of treatment, he announced his cancer was in remission in April of 2023.
So if that wasn’t already gross enough to say to someone without that type of history, this specific filth is especially gross being hurled towards the 36-year-old Australia native.
Hendriks is sick of it for both him and his fellow athletes across sports, and is calling on higher-ups in baseball to do something about it.
“This is one thing that more people need to talk out about this so we can get some sort of action, some sort of response and some sort of repercussions for the people doing it,” said Hendriks. “Whether they're burner accounts, whether they’re real accounts, this is something that is deplorable. There needs to be some sort of punishment so that people can think twice before they start doing this stuff.
“Enough is enough. Like at some point, everyone sucking [it] up and dealing with it isn't accomplishing anything. We pass it along to MLB Security, we pass 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.
“I think we need to be a united front. But also, I think someone needs to start it. It’s something that like - look, as you’re relatively well aware, I'm relatively outspoken of what I believe in, and I want to make sure that if I can be the front runner, or if I can be the head of this, and there's other guys that can come from behind and not necessarily put their neck on the line with anything, then that's fine. I'll do that. But as I said, we need something to change, and obviously the way we've been doing it hasn't worked, and nothing [has] changed at all.”
As both a former player and now longtime manager at the big league level, Hendriks’ manager Alex Cora completely understands where he's coming from, and agrees with his reasoning for why things have gotten worse.
“We're in the public eye, and people feel like they have the right to say whatever they want,” Cora told the media pregame. “Sometimes it comes from real people, others from burner accounts - you know, fake people, right? And it just puts everybody in a tough spot, right? We educate our players. You know, if it's up to me, I'll bring my daughter here, and then go through every account and then filter it, you know? And you don't have to pay attention to that. But obviously, everybody's different.
“And these guys - you know, we talked about it with Netflix. I think we open up to the world, right? And that was our choice. And things are gonna happen in an era that sports gambling, too, comes into play. It’s a dangerous path, right? People take it very seriously, and people are irresponsible, too, with the gambling part of it. And a decision, a pitch, a play, probably puts them in a bad spot, and they take it personally. That's not my fault, you know? I mean, you have to be responsible in what you're doing, you know? And that's the way I see it.”
Both Cora and Hendriks gave credit to the job that MLB Security has done when they’ve brought concerns to their attention, but that only goes so far.
I’d encourage you to listen to Hendriks’ recounting of one harrowing story in particular at the 5:08 mark in the clip below:
Just disgusting.
Things need to change, and hopefully words like these from players like Hendriks will move the needle towards better behavior by fans and bettors across the board.