Liam Hendriks<\/a> and Houston Astros\u2019 Lance McCullers Jr. received online death threats in May, and the latter was given additional security \u2014 an overwhelming majority of Major League Baseball players recently said legalized sports betting is changing the way fans treat players.<\/p>\nIn Ober\u2019s case, a fan displeased by the Twins pitcher yielding seven runs in a blowout loss to the Texas Rangers created an anonymous account to send the pitcher\u2019s wife a four-sentence message that included a threat.<\/p>\n
Before the fourth inning ended, Adams had already started to work with the Twins\u2019 security and social media teams and other resources, including MLB\u2019s security and cybersecurity departments, to determine the severity of the threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty common \u2014 definitely with pitchers,\u201d Adams said last week in the visiting dugout in Cincinnati. \u201cSadly, it is a postgame routine. The players\u2019 wives are pretty responsive and pretty on top of things. The players, they\u2019re good at communication, and that\u2019s the whole thing about having a relationship with guys. \u2018Hey, if this happens, get ahold of me.\u2019 If that comes, they just know.\u201d<\/p>\n
After patrolling Minneapolis\u2019 Fourth Precinct for part of his 20 years on the force, Adams, 44, is prepared for just about anything thrown his way with the Twins. He joined the team in October 2020, retiring from driving a patrol car as a daytime 9-1-1 response officer in North Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
Though the online threats that are brought forward by players are taken seriously, often they\u2019re deemed not dangerous. Even in McCullers\u2019 case, the Astros and MLB worked in concert with the Houston Police Department to determine that the person making the threat lived overseas and was \u201cfrustrated and inebriated when he lashed out on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
In most cases, Adams and the affected player meet and file a report on the incident. Then Adams, members of the Twins social media team and a local MLB security rep coordinate efforts to assess each situation and try to learn the identity of the person making the threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the worst of it and been in the worst situations you can think of,\u201d Adams said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying this is easy, but it\u2019s a lot less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
With multiple family members on the force, Adams always had a sense of how difficult the job could be. He pursued it anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a (family) tradition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His father, Charles \u201cCharlie\u201d Adams, is a Fourth Precinct inspector with 38 years of experience with MPD. An uncle worked nearly 30 years before retiring from MPD in 2020 to take over as the Minnesota Timberwolves\u2019 director of team security. And Adams\u2019 younger sister, Brittney, is in her fifth year working with the Police Activities League.<\/p>\n
Upon graduating from Minneapolis\u2019 North Community High \u2014 where he has been the head football coach since 2009 and won a state championship in 2016 \u2014 Adams went into law enforcement to help pay for school. He started as a community service officer in 2000 and later became a school resource officer at North High.<\/p>\n
One aspect of the job that initially appealed to Adams was the ability to foster better relationships and build trust between MPD and members of his community.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a peace officer,\u201d Adams said. \u201cYou are obligated to serve the community and not respond to crimes but be an asset to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why it was easier for me to do that job. I respected that piece of it because it was a community that I was from. I think that concept has kind of faded away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Twins approached Adams in October 2020 to gauge his interest in taking over as the team\u2019s security director. Adams wasn\u2019t looking to leave MPD, but the offer from then-Twins president Dave St. Peter was difficult to reject.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an opportunity I couldn\u2019t refuse,\u201d Adams said. \u201cDo I want to regret how things would be if I don\u2019t give it a shot? I\u2019ve already got 20 years. I always know law enforcement will be there if I want to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s no longer patrolling the streets, Adams remains connected to his community as head coach of North High\u2019s football program. His staff is composed of MPD officers, with his dad as the defensive line coach.<\/p>\n
A four-part Showtime documentary featured the program in \u201cBoys in Blue\u201d in 2023. Later that year, Adams released the book \u201cTwin Cities: My Life as a Black Cop and a Championship Coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every June, Adams helps his team prepare for the upcoming season with the aid of his entire coaching staff. Currently, the team practices once a week, works out three times a week and holds a weekly walk-through. Come August, when the schedule picks up in preparation for the season opener, Adams will attend each practice when the Twins are at home, arriving at Target Field in time for first pitch. While the Twins are on the road, Adams will rely on his coaches to run things in his absence.<\/p>\n
But once the football season begins, Adams\u2019 Twins-related travel will be restricted to the postseason and high-priority events, with other team security representatives stepping in for road trips.<\/p>\n
Last season, Adams\u2019 inexperienced squad went 8-3, its season ending with a loss to Holy Family in the Section 4AAA championship game. This year, Adams\u2019 club is laden with seniors, which makes him optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a real hungry group, and they should be ready to go,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n
Adams never hesitates to share his enthusiasm about the North High football team with the Twins players to whom he\u2019s closest. Several have made cameos at practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Charles at his best,\u201d Royce Lewis said of a game he attended in 2023. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t much of a game. His team is disgusting. They were so nasty out there on the field. \u2026 He protects us. To watch him do his thing and lead kids that are young and about to start their lives, it\u2019s impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident after Ober\u2019s June 12 start against the Rangers wasn\u2019t the first. Ober developed a rapport with Adams while dealing with previous threats.<\/p>\n
Many who responded to The Athletic\u2019s player poll<\/a> this spring said most of their direct messages on social media feature fans asking for reimbursements for lost bets. Some manage to be funny. But with the more serious threats, which can include specific information or a harsher tone, players have noted a difference since sports betting operations were legalized on a larger scale and formed partnerships with MLB.<\/p>\nAdams\u2019 reaction time makes difficult situations less stressful, Ober said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles is always the man,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever we need anything, an extra voice behind us to say something that maybe we can\u2019t say, he\u2019s the guy to go to when dealing with situations that aren\u2019t easy. He\u2019s always there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb \/ The Athletic; Brace Hemmelgarn \/ Minnesota Twins, Stephen Maturen \/ Getty Images, iStock)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Before his outing ever really got going, Bailey Ober walked a career-high six batters and yielded…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1287,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-13561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-minnesota-twins","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114744156736192656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}