Liam Hendriks made sure the Chicago White Sox had an annual “Pride Night” while finalizing his contract to play with the team after five seasons with the Oakland Athletics.
Not everybody was thrilled to hear that news.
While negotiating the terms of his deal, the 33-year-old MLB star asked the team if they held an annual “Pride Night” in June, according to The Athletic.
“It wasn’t a demand,” Hendriks told the outlet. “It was a simple question of, ‘Do you guys have a Pride Night?’ And if you don’t, that will be something that we need to look into that working out, making sure that we can handle it, because I don’t want to go necessarily to a team that doesn’t do it.”
“It’s something that I’ve believed in,” he added.
Former MLB player Aubrey Huff wasn’t feeling it, so he took to Instagram and mocked Hendricks to his followers.
“Don’t drop the soap in the shower with Liam Hendricks next to you @whitesox players!”
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“The biggest thing is making sure that hopefully, it starts more of a trend of other people willing to do it,” Hendricks told the outlet while explaining why hosting a Pride Night was so important to him.
“And then the more people that are willing to do it, the more people are willing to come out publicly and say, ‘I’m fine with this.’ And I’m hoping it strengthens the resolve of those people who may be on the fence about coming out, that may be on the fence of telling family, friends, peers or teammates or anything like that and fully embrace that,” he added.
Hendriks said he has “always been very vocal about” supporting the LGBTQ community because “it’s just being a decent human being.”
So far during the 2022 season, Liam Hendriks has a 1-2 record with 16 saves and a 2.81 ERA.
