Red Sox speak out about how sports gambling leads to social media threats

Doug Kyed, Boston Herald on May 23, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks had enough. So, he took to social media on Thursday to raise awareness about death threats he received following a loss to the Mets.

Hendriks addressed the post, and some of the messages he received, in the Red Sox clubhouse Friday morning ahead of a doubleheader against the Orioles.

“Unfortunately, it’s rampant within sports,” Hendriks said. “I’ve had people from different organizations. I’ve had people in different sports reach out about their own experiences with it. I mean, I’ve had people that have had their home addresses leaked. 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 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 continue to 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 something’s got to break, and it better not be any of the guys that are receiving this stuff.”

Hendriks and manager Alex Cora both said the criticism and threats have gotten worse with the rise of sports gambling.

“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, ‘Hey, you blew my parlay. Go (expletive) yourself’ kind of (expletive) and then it’s ‘go hang yourself. You should kill yourself. I wish you died from cancer.’ That one kind of hit a little little too close to home for me with everything I’ve gone through,” Hendriks said. “So this is one thing that, like, the 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, whether they’re burner accounts, whether they’re real accounts. I mean, this is something that is deplorable, and … there needs to be some sort of punishment so that people can think twice before they start doing this stuff.”

Hendriks said he reports threats to MLB security. He also described an event in the past when he had to get the Oakland Police Department involved when a fan told him they were going to come through Hendriks’ sliding door and “slit your throat while your wife watches.”

Hendriks had a sliding door at the time, so he called the police, who swept his house and took further action. Hendriks said he now lives in a more secure building but still fears for his wife’s safety when he’s on a road trip.

Cora said he received similar threats in the past and took action to filter messages on social media.

Cora called the rise of gambling a “dangerous path.”

“People take it very seriously, you know? And people are irresponsible too, with the gambling part of it, that decision … 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 for what you do, you know. And that’s the way I see it.”

One solution Hendriks came up with was to have social media apps track IP addresses.

“They already do it,” Hendriks said. “They might as well do it for some good rather than just doing it for data.”

Hendriks is in a tough stretch where he’s allowed five earned runs in his last 1 1/3 innings pitched. The three-time All-Star didn’t allow a run in his previous eight appearances. On the season, the Australian native has allowed a 5.56 ERA in 11 appearances and 11 1/3 innings.