HOUSTON (AP) â Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.âs family received online death threats following a tough start by the Houston Astrosâ pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it.
What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl.
âShe asked me when I came home: âDaddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?ââ McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. âSo, those conversations are tough to deal with.â
McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullers .
The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston Police Department following the threats to McCullers. An police spokesperson said Thursday that it remains an ongoing investigation.
McCullers, who has two young daughters, took immediate action after the threats and reached out to the team to inquire about what could be done to protect his family. Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in and hired 24-hour security for them.
It was a move McCullers felt was necessary after what happened.
âYou have to at that point,â he said.
Abuse increasing with rise in sports gambling
Players from around the league agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years. Milwaukeeâs Christian Yelich, a 13-year MLB veteran and the 2018 NL MVP, said receiving online abuse is âa nightly thingâ for most players.
âI think over the last few years itâs definitely increased,â he said. âItâs increased to the point that youâre just: âAll right, here we go.â It doesnât even really register on your radar anymore. I donât know if thatâs a good or a bad thing. Youâre just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. Itâs not just me. Itâs everybody in here, based on performance.â
And many players believe itâs directly linked to the rise in legalized sports betting.
âYou get a lot of DMs or stuff like that about you ruining someoneâs bet or something ridiculous like that,â veteran Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson said. âI guess they should make better bets.â
Hendriks has had enough
Hendriks, a 36-year-old reliever who non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife received death threats after a loss to the Mets. He added that people left comments saying that they wished he would have died from cancer among other abusive comments.
He later discussed the issue and his decision to speak out about it.
âEnough is enough,â he said. âLike at some point, everyone just like sucking up and dealing with it isnât accomplishing anything. And we pass along to 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 itâs 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."
What teams are doing
Both the Astros and the Red Sox are working with MLB security to take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy added that theyâve taken steps in recent years to make sure player' families are safe during games. That includes security staff and Boston police stationed in the family section at home and dedicated security in the traveling party to monitor the family section on the road.
Murphy said identifying those who make anonymous threats online is difficult, but: âboth the Red Sox and MLB have cyber programs and analysts dedicated to identifying and removing these accounts.â
The Astros have uniformed police officers stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented well before the threats to McCullers and his family.
Abandoning social media
For some players, online abuse has gotten so bad that theyâve abandoned social media. Detroit All-Star outfielder Riley Greene is one of them, saying he got off because he received so many messages from people blaming him for failed bets.
âI deleted it,â he said of Instagram. âIâm off it. It sucks, but itâs the world we live in, and we canât do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am, and say nasty stuff that we donât want to hear.â
Criticism is part of the game, threats are not
The 31-year-old McCullers, who returned this year after missing two full seasons with injuries, said dealing with this has been the worst thing thatâs happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for a poor performance is part of the game. But he believes thereâs a âmoral lineâ that fans shouldnât cross.
âPeople should want us to succeed,â he said. âWe want to succeed, but it shouldnât come at a cost to our families, the kids in our life, having to feel like theyâre not safe where they live or where they sit at games.â
Houston manager Joe Espada and was visibly upset when he addressed what happened with reporters.
Espada added that the team has mental health professionals available to the players to talk about the toll such abuse takes on them and any other issues they may be dealing with.
âWe are aware that when we step on the field, fans expect and we expect the best out of ourselves,â Espada said this week. âBut when we are trying to do our best and things donât go our way while weâre trying to give you everything we got and now youâre threatening our families and kids â now I do have a big issue with that, right? I just did not like it.â
Kansas Cityâs Salvador Perez, a 14-year MLB veteran, hasnât experienced online abuse but was appalled by what happened to McCullers. If something like that happened to him he said it would change the way he interacts with fans.
âNow some fans, real fans, theyâre gonna pay for that, too,â he said. "Because if I was him, I wouldnât take a picture or sign anything for noboby because of that one day.â
McCullers wouldnât go that far but admitted it has changed his mindset.
âIt does make you kind of shell up a little bit,â he said. âIt does make you kind of not want to go places. I guess thatâs just probably the human reaction to it.â
Finding a solution
While most players have dealt with some level of online abuse in their careers, no one has a good idea of how to stop it.
âIâm thankful Iâm not in a position where I have to find a solution to this,â Tigersâ pitcher Tyler Holton said. âBut as a person who is involved in this, I wish this wasnât a topic of conversation.â
White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman is disheartened at how bad player abuse has gotten. While itâs mostly online, he added that heâs had teammates that have had racist and homophobic things yelled at them during games.
âOutside of just simply not having social media I really donât see that getting better before it just continues to get worse,â he said. âI mean, I think itâs kind of the way things are now. Like, people just feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to whoever they want and itâs behind a keyboard and thereâs really no repercussions, right?â
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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick and AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen, Kyle Hightower, Larry Lage and Steve Megargee contributed to this report.
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AP MLB:
Kristie Rieken, The Associated Press