While deleting the entirety of one’s previous social media history should be standard operating procedure for every athlete who ever sniffs a chance of making money to play sports, as we learn time and again, that is not the case. Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader is our latest example of how the internet never forgets and this time it happened in the middle of baseball’s All-Star Game.
Hader left the game after surrendering a three-run home run to Seattle Mariners shortstop Jean Segura in the eighth inning, and shortly thereafter, old racist, homophobic, and just generally shitty tweets from as far back as seven years ago began surfacing on a national stage.
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Lowlights include multiple uses of the N-word, rampant misogyny, the phrase “gay people freak me out” because of a pony shirt, and straight-up tweeting “KKK.” Word moved swiftly through the ballpark that Hader—whose Twitter handle (before he deleted it all) was appropriately “Josh Haderade [trademark symbol]”—had some bad shit on his social media and everyone seemed to know.
There was a person in Hader gear, who flipped their shirsey inside out:
There was even Hader’s family, who did likewise, and had what had to have been an extremely awkward post-game experience:
And in a situation that could only occur during the All-Star Game, it appears some of his colleagues were tuning into the controversy from the very same dugout due to the lax rules regarding phones. For most of the game, the newfound freedom to tweet through it from the dugout proved delightful, with Gleyber Torres and Nelson Cruz filming their teammates hitting home runs. But then there is, uh, potentially awkward moment caught by FOX’s cameras:
It’s hard to say for sure that they were looking at Hader getting dragged online, but the timing—ninth inning—lines up to when this was all going down and they do not look like they are watching any heartfelt “Strangers Band Together to Save Drowning Puppy” or slapstick “Man Hits Teeshot into His Own Face” viral content; Nelson Cruz’s face at the very end of that first clip is like a facsimile of the Conceited Reaction.
Hader eventually faced the media and did the typical “I was young and stupid” thing which, while certainly true, is by no means the end of this story. Hader’s got teammates and colleagues and the wider world to apologize to and actually make good on those “doesn’t reflect any of my beliefs going on now” claims.
All in all, it marred an otherwise fun event, where baseball’s best and brightest put on a show in Washington, D.C. for two days, and then promptly got overshadowed by a MAGA hat.
UPDATE (1:39pm EST)
Major League Baseball announced that Hader will be required to undergo diversity and inclusion initiatives as a result of his actions:
And earlier Wednesday, Brewers General Manager David Stearns issued the following statement:
