Three months after a teammate and his wife is made public with the death threats they received on social networks, the Red Sox launcher, Lucas Giolito, was forced to confront Commissioner Rob Manfred about the issue.
Giolito told Rob Bradford on the Baseball is not boring The podcast that the threats against the Boston Liam Hendriks launcher in May was hardly an isolated incident.
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Giolito said online threats get worse “per year, week, day by day”.
“I receive messages after each match,” he said. “Even the games where I launched well, where they are angry with me because I hit withdrawal instead of being under bets, all these crazy things. People put hundreds of dollars on it. They don’t have much money but they play it anyway because it is a disease. They panic.”
Maddie Malhotra / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images
Giolito told Bradford that Manfred was receptive to his comments at their meeting 1 against 1.
“Will it take an assaulted player in front of his building by an unhappy guy who lost a bet for real measures to take?” Giolito said he had asked Manfred.
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The launcher and his girlfriend reported threatening messages using social media applications – generally Instagram and Twitter / X, he said – on which they were received. However, these messages do not always lead to disciplinary measures against sender.
Giolito said that his fear that someone “in a drastic state” could hurt or kill a player to be authentic, based on some of the messages he received.
“Threats when a player does not work well, threats to his family, threats to their lives, it becomes very tiring,” said Giolito. “I am worried about guys who may be new in the league and who are not ready for something like that, you know? … Maybe at this stage (the League) puts it in the recruits orientation program. It was certainly not there when I went there. It was a long time ago.”
Giolito, 31, made his debut in the major league in 2016.
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Manfred recently spoke to the Red Sox as a team on “Game growth”, before Giolito said that he was withdrawing it for their conversation in 1 against 1.
“I appreciate (Manfred) to come and talk to everyone,” he said.
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