Houston – Shortly after Lance family McCullers Jr. received online death threats after a difficult start by Houston Astros launcher, his 5 -year -old daughter, Ava, heard his wife Kara talking about it on the phone.
What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little daughter.
“She asked me when I got home:” Dad as what threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me? “,” McCullers told the Associated Press. “Thus, these conversations are difficult to manage.”
McCullers is one of the two MLB launchers whose families received online death threats as the players on the Internet of players and their families are increasing. Boston’s lifter, Liam Hendriks, went to social networks shortly after the incident with McCullers to call people who threatened his wife’s life and directed “vile” comments.
The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston police service following threats to McCullers. A police spokesperson said there was an investigation in progress.
McCullers, who has two young girls, took immediate action after threats and hired 24 -hour security for his family.
“You have to that time,” he said.
Abuse increasing with the increase in sports games
League players agree that online abuses have gradually aggravated in recent years. Christian Yelich de Milwaukee, an MLB veteran of 13 years and the 2018 MVP NL, said that receiving online abuses is “a night thing” for most players.
“I think that in recent years, it has definitely increased,” he said. “It has increased to the point that you are only:” Very well, let’s go. It no longer even registers on your radar.
And many players believe that it is directly linked to the increase in legalized sports betting.
“You get a lot of DMS or things like that about you by ruining someone’s bet or something ridiculous like that,” said the veteran lift of Red Sox, Justin Wilson. “I guess they should make better bets.”
Hendriks has enough
Hendriks, a 36 -year -old lift who had previously fought against non -Hodgkinian lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife had received death threats after a loss against the food. He added that people had left comments saying that they wanted to be cancer among other abusive comments.
He then discussed the question and his decision to talk about it.
“Enough, that’s enough,” he said. “As at a given time, everyone like sucking and facing it does not care. And we are going to security. We transmit to who we need, but nothing ends up happening. And this happens the following night. And therefore, at one point, someone must talk about it. And it is the hope that it can push in the right direction.”
What teams do
Astros and Red Sox work with MLB security to take measures against social media users who lead threats to players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy added that they had taken measures in recent years to make sure that players’ families are safe during the matches. This includes security personnel and Boston police station in the family section at home and dedicated security during the itinerant part to monitor the family section on the road.
Murphy said that the identification of those who constitute anonymous online threats is difficult, but: “The Red Sox and the MLB both have Cyber programs and analysts dedicated to the identification and deletion of these accounts.”
Astros have uniform police stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented long before the threats against McCullers and his family.
Abandon social media
For some players, online abuses have become so bad that they have abandoned social media. The voltiseur of the stars of Detroit, Riley Greene, is one of them, saying that he was released because he received so many messages from people who blame him for failed bets.
“I deleted it,” he said about Instagram. “I’m outside that. It sucks, but it is the world in which we live, and we can not do anything about it. People dm and say unpleasant things, tell me how bad a player, and said unpleasant things that we don’t want to hear. “
Criticism is part of the game, threats are not
McCullers, 31, who returned this year after missing two complete seasons with injuries, said that doing this was the worst thing that happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for poor performance is part of the game. But he believes that there is a “moral line” that fans should not cross.
“People should want us to succeed,” he said. “We want to succeed, but that should not have a cost for our families, the children of our lives, having to feel as if they are not safe where they live or where they are sitting on games.”
Houston manager Joe Espada was livid when he learned threats to McCullers and his family and was visibly upset when he approached what happened with journalists.
Espada added that the team has mental health professionals available to players to talk about the balance sheet that these abuses take on them and any other problem with which they could face.
“We are aware that when we walk on the ground, the fans expect what we expect and we expect the best of ourselves,” said Espada. “But when we try to do our best and things do not go in our direction while we are trying to give you everything we have and now threaten our families and our children – now I have a big problem with that, right? I didn’t like that.”
The Salvador Perez of Kansas City, a 14 -year -old MLB veteran, has not undergone any online violence but was dismayed by what happened in McCullers. If something like that happened to him, he said that it would change the way he interacts with fans.
“Now, some fans, real fans, they will pay for that too,” he said. “Because if I were him, I would not take any photos or would not sign anything for anyone because of it one day.”
McCullers would not go so far but admitted that it had changed mind.
“It makes you a little baptid,” he said. “It makes you somehow not wanting to go to places. I guess it is probably the human reaction to that. ”
Find a solution
Although most players have dealt with a certain level of violence in their careers, no one has a good idea how to stop it.
“I am grateful not to be in a position where I have to find a solution to that,” said Tigers launcher Tyler Holton. “But as a person involved, I hope that it is not a subject of conversation.”
White Sox outflower, Mike Tauchman, is discouraged by the way the bad abuse of players has become. Although it was especially online, he added that he had teammates who had racist and homophobic things that shouted during the matches.
“Apart from simply, I don’t have social networks, I really don’t see that it improves before it continues to get worse,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s a bit the way things are now. Like people just have the impression of having the right to say what they want who they want and it is behind a keyboard and there is really no repercussions, right?”