Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
An anonymous poll of current Major League Baseball players has revealed how much sports betting has impacted many players’ relationships with fans. A large portion of those responses indicate that the changes have not been not for the better.
The players were asked in a poll by The Athletic, “Has legalized sports betting changed how fans treat you or your teammates?” Out of the 133 MLB players that responded to the poll question, an overwhelming 78.2 percent said that it had.
Most of the players who said the situation with fans has become more negative, unsurprisingly say it occurs most often on social media. “They wouldn’t say that stuff to your face,” one pitcher said.
However, there are some fans who are brazen enough to say things to players in person. One former National League All-Star pitcher told The Athletic that fans will hang over the fence as he is warming up in the bullpen to remind him that they have bet on him and even point out things as specific as what the over/under is on his number of strikeouts that day.
Another example comes from a veteran relief pitcher who said, “I’ve received (something) as simple as a Venmo request with a threat on it that says, ‘You owe me $9,000 because you blew the game – I need you to send me that money or I’m going to find your family.’ That’s too far. We’ve communicated as players to MLB security that we need to get a handle on this before it gets out of control. I don’t want to say this, but something bad is going to happen and it’s going to be like, ‘We told you so.’”
A veteran outfielder says sports betting fans are far worse than it used to be with fantasy baseball-playing fans. “It’s the worst thing that’s happened to the game since I’ve been up here,” he said.
Another MLB player called it “insane,” adding that he has gotten threats from people saying they were going shoot him. “People suck, dude,” a National League pitcher said about the threats.
Two recent examples of fans going too far happened to players who were on the comeback trail after lengthy absences due to injury or illness.
Lance McCullers, Jr. returned to the mound this May after being out for 915 days due to injury. After his second start in which he allowed seven runs in just one-third of an inning, a fan made death threats against him and his kids.
Also this season, Liam Hendricks, who missed almost all of the 2023 season due to cancer and elbow inflammation, then the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, finally returned to the mound. After pitching just 11.1 innings this season, he and his wife were subjected to numerous hate comments and death threats.
One relief pitcher who responded to The Athletic poll worries that sports betting is only going to make things worse.
“I think there’s going to be a security risk or personnel risk,” he said. “Someone’s going to lose a bunch of money and track down somebody in a parking lot, especially if the A’s end up moving to Vegas. With the live betting, it could get pretty serious.”