Liam Hendriks proved to be a good closer on Friday against the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, commanding respect with both his on-field play and post-game comments.
White Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks recently beat cancer. He’s going to be known as “that guy who beat cancer” probably for the rest of his MLB career, and that’s both a good and bad thing.
For starters, congratulations. Go ahead and ring that bell, Hendriks overcame the biggest obstacle in life and baseball when he finished his final round of chemo. Previously diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in December, Hendriks underwent his chemotherapy treatments for the last several months before announcing last April that he closed out cancer.
So on Friday, when Hendriks made his debut in the minor leagues for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights against the Gwinnett Stripers, everyone stood up and applauded — the players and fans from both teams.
Hendriks had this legendary statement on that tender moment:
Liam Hendriks won the fight against cancer and now everybody loves him
Basically, he has to get angry like Hulk to play well. So maybe opposing fans shouldn’t be nice to him? A little bit of trash talk could turn him into a superstar ace, and he’ll be back in the majors in no time.
Hendriks ended up putting together a respectable performance anyway, striking out one batter and pitching a scoreless inning in the seventh. He threw nine pitches in total, mixing it up with fastballs and sliders, and his pitches topped out at a decent 93.2 mph.
As for his return to the White Sox, Hendriks didn’t specific an exact timeline for a possible promotion and remains focused on his rehab assignments for now.
Unfortunately for him, opposing fans probably aren’t going to start being mean to him anytime soon, even if he needs that extra bit of motivation. Hendrik’s feel-good story just feels too good.