CHICAGO — Liam Hendriks uses both physical and metaphysical aspects to hone his game.
As an example, the closer White Sox noticed that his extension was a bit short during a missed save in Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Royals, as well as there was too much drop on his fastball after talking to the folks at Codify Baseball.
But Hendriks also felt “lighter” after speaking with Rubi, her tarot card reader. She will also send crystals and bracelets to help Hendriks discover his locker, after Hendriks discovered his locker on Monday.
“I sprayed sage spray around my locker,” said Hendriks, who warned a few other players on the team who were “a little more open to it.”
“Things like that that are capable, in theory, of removing negative energy and putting a positive spin on everything.
“It’s just something I experienced. It seems to change my way of perceiving things. That’s one of the hardest things to do, it’s just to change your perception of certain things, whether it’s to get out of that negative funk, to focus on positivity, to focus on that one thing that can move you forward. For some reason this seems to work for me. It takes that advantage away and all of a sudden I’m able to flip that switch a little faster than I would on my own.
Hendriks has actually worked with Rubi since 2018, when his wife, Kristi, saw something about her on an Instagram post and contacted her. Rubi is now part of the family, with Hendriks mentioning how they all spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together before.
His knowledge of baseball is limited, at best. Hendriks laughed Monday pointing out that Rubi calls him the “mount” and not the mound when talking about throwing.
“That’s the best part about it,” Hendriks said. “She’s not a baseball fan giving me information she thinks is right. She has no idea about the game. She’s telling me purely from an emotional and physical standpoint where she can kind of feel and see the difference between the way I talk about things and the way I describe things.
“She gave me a few exercises where I manifest certain things, whether it’s just waking up and saying the five things around me that I’m very grateful for or the three things that I really want to define myself for. as a person.. These things are helping me get back to a bit of that positive mindset and thing that I’ve been preaching for the last few years of my career.
Hendriks speaks to him at the start of each new year and reaches out for a reading when he is going through difficulties. Rubi basically reinforces the focus points already in place for Hendriks, much like reading a book and a certain passage really jumps and resonates.
“She also said at the start of the offseason that she was planning more than three [years]not four, and for more than 50 [million]Hendriks said of Rubi’s free agent projection. “And that was in the first week of October, or right after the playoffs. If you want to talk about precision, she also has this pretty touch.”