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Josh Hader, a relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, found himself embroiled in controversy this week when old tweets surfaced from 2011. The tweets, which were from 2011 and 2012, surfaced during the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night with many of the tweets featuring racist, sexist, and homophobic messages.
Immediately after the game, Hader apologized for the messages sent from his account. The tweets were from before Hader was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of high school.
“I was young, immature and stupid,” Hader said, via MLB.com. “There’s no excuses for what was said.
“It was something that happened when I was 17 years old, and as a child, I was immature and obviously I did some things that were inexcusable. That doesn’t reflect on who I am as a person today. I was in high school. We’re still learning who we are in high school. You live and you learn. This mistake won’t happen again. There’s no excuse for what was said, and I’m deeply sorry for what I said and what’s going on. Like I said, that doesn’t reflect on my beliefs going on now.”
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Josh Hader once said pic.twitter.com/hoBhQbFIT2— Freddie Benson (@DeeH_NYC) July 18, 2018
While the tweets were incredibly offensive, received some support from teammate Lorenzo Cain, who was also representing the Brewers in the All-Star Game.
“He’s young, we all say some crazy stuff when we’re young,” said Cain. “That’s the reason I don’t have social media, things like this. You always get in trouble for things you say when you’re younger. We’ll move on from it. The situation is what it is. I know Hader, he’s a great guy. I know he’s a great teammate. I’m fine. Everybody will be OK. We’ll move on from it.
“At the end of the day, we’ve all said crazy stuff growing up, even when we were 17, 18 years old. If we could follow each other around with a recorder all day, I’m sure we’ve all said some dumb stuff. We’re going to move on from this.”
In 31 appearances, Hader has a 1.50 ERA and 89 strikeouts. Milwaukee returns to action on Friday, July 20, against the Los Angeles Dodgers at home. You can read some of Hader’s controversial tweets below.
WARNING: Messages contain strong and offensive language.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjDMq8hDPyR/?tagged=joshhader
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlXvgfoHMOa/?tagged=joshhader
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlW6tzwAMOU/?tagged=joshhader
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlW_ZIngXQw/?tagged=joshhader
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlW7qWkg5Ig/?tagged=joshhader
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlW5_AUnT80/?tagged=joshhader
