"This authoritarian bulls*** is sickening" - Fans erupt as MLB erases Liam Hendriks’ LGBTQ+ allyship in Roberto Clemente Award release

Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks was nominated for the seventh time for the Roberto Clemente Award in 2025. All 30 MLB teams are allowed to nominate one player from their side for the honor, which is given to those who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team."

However, this year, fans noticed that the league’s official press release omitted a key part of Hendriks’ outspoken allyship with the LGBTQ+ community. This was not the case in the past four years.

This had fans up in arms as they took shots at the league for neglecting a reference to the LGBTQ+ community.

"The cowardice of MLB and most other corporations in the face of this authoritarian bulls*it is sickening," one fan wrote. "Just proves a lot of the Pride stuff was performative in the first place and they only ever cared about the money. They’d probably de-integrate if they thought it would make them money," another fan commented. "Rainbow washing I think it’s been called. It’s always been a callous plot to expand the market share of goods," one fan posted.

Reactions continue to pour with fans' sentiments clearly being hurt.

"Their true colors are showing. It was never something they cared about," one fan wrote. "In a society where all that matters is money, no business is incentivized to have morals. It’s a pathetic way to live," another fan commented. "I'd rather live in a world where companies think disingenuously pandering to the LGBTQ community makes them more money than a world where erasing the existence of LGBTQ people makes them more money. Still shows where society is headed," one fan wrote.

Liam Hendricks on pace to donate more than $750,000

The Red Sox pitcher has consistently made the headlines with her regular contributions to noble causes. According to the official Red Sox/MLB bio, Hendriks is again on pace to donate more than $750,000 this year toward charitable causes.

This season, Hendriks has made 65 community appearances, totaling 51 hours of direct service. Hendriks has also made time to meet with cancer patients, meet with veterans and volunteers in the club's community programs.

His charity, Hendriks’ Heroes, co-founded with Kristi, is used to host cancer survivors at road series and home stands. Having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma himself, Hendriks started the "Close Out Cancer" shirt campaign. He raised over $100,000 for the Lymphoma Research Foundation through sales.

It remains to be seen if he wins the Roberto Clemente Award for the first time this year.

Edited by Krutik Jain