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.
“Marco!”
“Polo!”
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 cutthroat environment, your replacement is often waiting for you to stumble. So it’s no wonder that athletes have long felt compelled to hide any signs of perceived weakness or vulnerability, mental health included.
Norms are changing in sports, though, perhaps in part due to shifts in public attitudes concerning mental illness. Social media has also afforded athletes a direct connection with fans, permitting greater insight into the human behind the hero.
Duran is part of a growing group of athletes who have recently shared their experiences with mental illness to raise awareness and challenge stigma. Since its launch in 2014, The Players’ Tribune has published more than two dozen athlete essays about mental health, including testimonials from NBA player John Wall and WNBA star A’ja Wilson.
Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
My colleagues and I have studied these disclosures, the public’s response to them and their societal effects. We used surveys, experiments and interviews with athletes who have become mental health advocates, such as 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps.
The growing number of athlete testimonials coincides with changes to how professional sports leagues and teams are addressing mental health. Organizations are hiring mental health professionals and advocating on behalf of mental health-related causes in their communities. In a recent analysis, we found that NFL, MLB and NBA teams made 258 social media posts between 2021 and 2025 that advocated for mental health funding, education and policy. Each year, the number of posts increased.
When coupled with other findings that we published in 2020, our research suggests that sports fans appreciate the athlete testimonials and team-driven conversations. Their response has been overwhelmingly positive. Athletes appear to inspire fans to open up to family, pursue treatment and take other steps to buoy their well-being.
Vulnerability comes with risks
Yet Duran’s recent experience illustrates how a minority of fans and sports commentators can threaten this progress.
After the recent incident in Minneapolis, the sports and opinion outlet OutKick described Duran’s behavior as an “act” that was “wearing thin.” The backlash reminded me of the criticism NBA star Ben Simmons was subjected to a few years ago. In 2021, Simmons sat out the season with the Philadelphia 76ers, citing mental health issues. A year later, he returned to play for the Brooklyn Nets. Cynics accused him of “weaponizing mental health” to avoid playing for the 76ers.
Fans have targeted the mental health problems of other athletes.
During the 2019 MLB playoffs, New York Yankees fans were caught on camera mocking Houston Astros pitcher Zack Greinke for taking medication for his social anxiety as Greinke warmed up. Simone Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, stepped away from competition during the Tokyo Olympics because she experienced the “twisties,” which the Cleveland Clinic describes as a “dangerous disconnect between mind and body” brought about by stress and other factors. Some critics showed little sympathy, describing her as a quitter.
Prepping for the aftereffects
Beyond being exposed to barbs and verbal abuse, athletes who talk about their mental health can also be expected to take on responsibilities that they didn’t necessarily sign up for.
A disclosure of a mental health struggle can shift an athlete’s reputation from athlete to advocate. For example, social media users debated whether Duran owed it to fans to share his steps toward recovery. Doing so would provide others guidance while lending legitimacy to Duran’s experience, one side said. It’s none of our business, the other side replied.
The mental illness label can also color people’s judgment of an athlete’s performance. Did throwing a helmet after a strikeout reflect his mental illness, or a brief moment of frustration? Does this slump mean he’s going through another period of depression?
Athletes also worry whether they’ll be judged by teammates and coaches. In 2023, the NCAA surveyed more than 2,000 college athletes and found that just half would be comfortable seeking help for mental health struggles through campus resources. Furthermore, only around half believed fellow athletes took teammates’ mental health seriously, and about half felt comfortable speaking with coaches about their mental health.
For athletes – or anyone – interested in disclosing mental health struggles, a good game plan can help accentuate positive responses and mitigate negative ones.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness recommends people – whether they’re famous or not – consider the audience, timing and the amount of information they’re comfortable sharing. Meanwhile, fans, coaches and teammates can do their part by publicly supporting athletes who disclose.
When Duran first shared his experiences in 2025, his then-manager, Alex Cora, immediately signaled his support.
“It takes a person with courage and being transparent and genuine to do that,” Cora said. “I hope that’s how we see it – that he will impact others and he’s going to save lives.”
With stigma, the battle between silence and dialogue can be a back-and-forth contest, akin to a long rally in tennis or a tense overtime in basketball. But sometimes all it takes is one defining moment to change the game – as when Marcos Torres ripped a line drive to quiet his hecklers that chilly evening in Columbia, South Carolina.
