White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson spoke Tuesday about the confrontation between him and Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson, in which the latter referred to Anderson as “Jackie” during the weekend meeting in the Bronx. Anderson said this wasn’t the first time Donaldson had referred to him as “Jackie,” and that he told him not to do so when it first occurred in 2019.
“I told him, we never have to talk again. I won’t speak to you, you won’t speak to me, if that’s how you’re going to refer to me,” Anderson said, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “I knew he knew exactly what he was doing.”
Donaldson said after the game that the reference was an inside joke between he and Anderson, who called himself “today’s Jackie Robinson” in an interview with Sports Illustrated in 2019. Anderson called the interaction “disrespectful,” and that the two had had no interactions since then. Donaldson was later suspended for one game for his actions, a ruling he is now appealing.
