Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Tanner Scott pitched one inning last weekend against the Philadelphia Phillies and gave up three runs, resulting in a loss. Outkick reports that his wife Maddie says the next day she started getting online death threats against her and her newborn.
One of the comments read "Hope this mutt d-i-e-s soon," with a picture of their child. The user added, “I hope you get home to your family lying in puddles of their own blood.”
Scott and his wife are not the only baseball family to be harassed as multiple Major League Baseball pitchers — Tayler Saucedo from the Seattle Mariners, Liam Hendriks from the Boston Red Sox and Lance McCullers Jr. from the Houston Astros — received death threats in the 2025 season.
Maddie posted the obvious question to her social media, "When did it stop being a game?”
Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling says when sports betting started ruining lives.
“It destroys them financially. It keeps people poor. It creates a lot of domestic violence in families, a lot of family violence,” Bernal states.
ESPN reported that an “intoxicated better located overseas” was responsible for the social media threats against McCullers’ family.
Bernal says it's a vicious addiction that has little to do with any sport.
“We actually have people wagering on even obscure sports, like Belarusian table tennis or Korean pickleball, because it's not about the sporting event. These people aren't fans,” Bernal says.
Even if a person has never placed a bet in their life, Bernal says they are still losing money.
“Who do you think is paying for all the criminal incarceration costs, the police calls, the social services that go along with predatory gambling? The non-gambler. So, you pay even if you don't play,” Bernal states.
He says the losses are staggering.
“If you add up all of the money that people are losing to commercialized sports gambling, state lotteries and regional casinos, combined it's more than $300,000 every minute in this country,” Bernal states.
