Benches cleared between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees on Sunday when catcher Yasmani Grandal started yelling at Josh Donaldson as he came to the plate in the fifth inning. Grandal was standing up for teammate Tim Anderson after Donaldson made a racist remark to him on multiple occasions earlier in the game.
Donaldson called Anderson “Jackie” as a reference to Jackie Robinson. Here are Anderson’s comments on the incident after the Yankees’ 7-5 win in New York.
Grandal got in Donaldson’s face when he approached home plate. The benches cleared and Anderson had to be restrained by teammates. You can watch the sequence here.
Donaldson said he called Anderson “Jackie” as a nod to a 2019 Sports Illustrated feature where Anderson said “I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson.” Donaldson said he and Anderson joked about the quote during a game in 2019, but clearly Anderson didn’t find this as some kind of endearing reference between two friends.
Josh Donaldson says he called Tim Anderson “Jackie” during today’s game, referencing a quote from Anderson in a 2019 story. Donaldson said he felt the self-reference had been a joke between the two of them in the past.
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) May 21, 2022
Here’s the quote from the original SI story:
This is the quote from Tim Anderson that Josh Donaldson referenced today. He said it to Sports Illustrated in 2019. Josh Donaldson said that in the past, and and Tim Anderson had joked about it. pic.twitter.com/kMaSopsNaC
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) May 21, 2022
Donaldson’s side of the story — that the nickname was said in good faith between two players who are friendly with each other — is extremely hard to believe given the recent history between Donaldson and the White Sox. Just last week, Donaldson hit Anderson with a hard tag at third base that led to another benches clearing argument. Last season, Donaldson taunted White Sox ace Lucas Giolito during a game, which led to an escalating battle of words and a parking lot confrontation.
Grandal also talked to reporters after the game, and continued to stand up for Anderson:
Yasmani Grandal says Josh Donaldson “lives in his own world.”
“A comment like that is just unacceptable. It’s something that should not be allowed.” pic.twitter.com/H12nsqOmaS
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) May 21, 2022
“This game went through a period of time a lot of those comments were made, and I think we’re way past that,” Yasmani Grandal told reporters, saying that Donaldson denied the incident when he confronted him in the fifth inning. “I guess he lives in his own world.”
Donaldson was also getting ripped on Twitter for the incident.
The very simple problem with Josh Donaldson calling Tim Anderson “Jackie” is that he perverted honor into mockery.
— Bradford William Davis (@BWDBWDBWD) May 21, 2022
Tim Anderson calling himself “the new Jackie Robinson” because he draws inspiration from Robinson’s legacy doesn’t give Josh Donaldson permission to call him Jackie
Unacceptable
Flippantly calling Anderson “Jackie” minimizes baseball’s history of racism and the pain it’s caused https://t.co/2sbjg30tWu
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) May 21, 2022
Here is Donaldson’s explanation after the game:
Donaldson’s comment is flat out ignorant. He was trying to get under Anderson’s skin by calling arguably the biggest Black star in MLB today by the name of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier. It turns Robinson into a punchline and flippantly overlooks the struggles Black players have had to endure in the game.
Anderson’s opinion is the only one who matters here, and to him Donaldson’s explanation to bogus. Donaldson needs to do some serious self-reflection.