Hendriks' mom to make 11,700-mile trek to Fenway

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- The Hendriks family is set to be in the stands at Fenway Park in a couple of weeks, hopefully to see their son Liam Hendriks pitch in a Red Sox uniform for the first time in person.

For Liam’s mom, Debbie, it won’t be her first time at the storied park. But it will be her first time there with Liam in attendance. Debbie attended a game at Fenway in 2011 while Liam was playing for the Twins’ Double-A affiliate New Britain Rock Cats down the road in Connecticut.

Did she go to the game with her son?

“No. I think it was the All-Star break or something like that,” Liam said.

Liam’s mom and family first saw him pitch in the Majors a few years into his big league career while the right-hander was with the Athletics. Since then, they’ve been in attendance for a number of Liam’s milestones, including two All-Star Games.

In May 2023, Debbie was among the spirited crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field to welcome Liam back in his return from a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Hendriks pitched in his first Major League game since June 9, 2023, and first in a Red Sox uniform on April 20. He gave up two runs over that one-inning outing against the White Sox. Since then, Hendriks has appeared in five games for Boston, giving up two hits and not allowing a run. His last two outings in particular have encouraged manager Alex Cora.

“Better fastball, offspeed pitches expanding, which is great,” Cora said. “So the more he goes out there, the better he’s gonna be. We have to take it one day at a time, see how he feels. Two out of three days and see how he bounces back, and then the next thing is back to back.

“It’s a lot different than Spring Training, it’s a lot different than a rehab assignment. We’re trying to win ballgames, as many as possible, but we have to know what we can get from him. And so far, it’s been good.”

When Debbie and the Hendriks family make the nearly 11,700 mile journey from Perth, Australia, to Boston at the end of May, they’ll hope to be rewarded with front-row seats to see their son pitch at Fenway Park.

It’s a long journey to make, but traveling long distances for baseball is something Debbie has been doing since long before Liam made it to the big leagues.

Liam’s amateur career brought him all over Australia, often requiring him to take multiple buses and trains to get to practice when he didn’t have a car. But he could count on Debbie and his father to be there ready for the hour-plus drive home.

“It was just a lot of driving,” Hendriks said. “... We didn’t really vacation too much as kids, because our vacation was me going to national championships in January. So they sacrificed a lot for me in that regard with just picking up and travelling and always kind of picking me up when I needed [it] as well.”