As more athletes speak openly about depression, anxiety and suicide, a minority of fans are weaponizing it |
It’s a cool Tuesday night in Columbia, South Carolina, and fans of the minor league baseball team the Columbia Fireflies are letting an opposing batter named Marcos Torres hear it.
“Marco!” one fan calls.
“Polo!” a half dozen fans respond, mimicking the swimming pool game.
The batter swings and misses. The cacophony begins again.
Baseball fans have developed a reputation for shouting wisecracks to try to rattle players. But there’s a dark side to heckling, one that concerns me as a researcher of sports, media and mental health: when fans cross the line from playful taunt into verbal abuse.
The latest publicized incident occurred during a game between the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins on April 14, 2026. A fan in the stands at Target Field in Minneapolis reportedly told Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran to kill himself. Duran responded by giving him the finger.
It was at least the second time a fan used Duran’s mental health as verbal ammunition since the 2025 release of the Netflix documentary, “The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox,” in which Duran described attempting suicide.
After the game, Duran told reporters, “Honestly, it’s my fault for talking about my mental health, because I kind of brought in the haters.”
U.S. society holds elite athletes in high regard; they’re uniquely trusted and admired. That’s why they appear as spokespeople for everything from car insurance to foot powder. And it’s why so many kids look up to athletes as role models.
So when someone like Duran gets harassed after revealing a mental illness – and then expresses regret for having opened up – an impressionable onlooker could decide that talking about their mental health struggles isn’t worth the risk.
Most fans respond positively
Elite sports can be a cauldron of stress. Aside from the pressure to perform, there are the demands of travel, training and managing relationships. In this........