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Sports

3 takeaways from the Chicago White Sox-New York Yankees series, including Tim Anderson silencing the crowd and Michael Kopech’s ‘dad strength’

NEW YORK — Here are three takeaways from the series at Yankee Stadium, where Chicago White Sox won two of the three games against the New York Yankees.Tim Anderson heard boos when he stepped to the plate during the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader.AdvertisementThe Sox shortstop silenced the crowd in a memorable fashion in the eighth inning, connecting for a three-run home run. It served as an exclamation point in a 5-0 victory.“That speaks huge to the character of Tim and what we’re trying to be in this clubhouse, and that’s a family,” Sox pitcher Michael Kopech said. “That was one of the cooler things I’ve seen, watching an entire crowd that’s showing low class toward him, booing him, calling him ‘Jackie’ and all that stuff, and then hitting a homer and putting us right back in a good position to win.Advertisement“Got nothing but respect for him.”As he headed for home plate, Anderson did a signature move, giving the “shh” signal.Tim Anderson rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run during the eighth inning of Game 2 a doubleheader against the Yankees on May 22, 2022. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)Anderson had three hits a day after words were exchanged with New York Yankees third baseman/designated hitter Josh Donaldson during the third inning of Saturday’s game.“Basically tried to call me Jackie Robinson: ‘What’s up, Jackie?’” Anderson said. “He made the comment and it was disrespectful and I don’t think it was called for. It was unnecessary.”The benches cleared before Donaldson’s fifth-inning at-bat after he and Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal had a conversation.Donaldson admitted after the game, “I called him Jackie,” later adding: “I thought that was a joke between him and I because we have talked about it before. … He’s called himself Jackie Robinson (referencing a 2019 Sports Illustrated story). That’s why I thought it was funny between us.”It was an explanation that rubbed Sox closer Liam Hendriks the wrong way.[ [Don’t miss] Column: A teachable moment — and the true meaning of Jackie Robinson’s legacy to Black baseball players ]“Usually you have inside jokes with people you get along with, not people that don’t get along at all,” Hendriks said before Sunday’s doubleheader.AdvertisementSox manager Tony La Russa was surprised by the boos Sunday night, but definitely not the results from Anderson, who is slashing .359/.400/.517 with five home runs and 18 RBIs.“Think about the game he had under those circumstances,” La Russa said. “That made it special. But he’s had that kind of game a lot this year.”The Sox placed Kopech on the paternity list Tuesday. He returned after the birth of his second son, Vander, on Friday.“My mind hasn’t been on baseball until (Saturday),” Kopech said.He added with a laugh, “That probably helped me quite a bit.”White Sox starting pitcher Michael Kopech throws in the sixth inning of Game 2 of the doubleheader against the Yankees on May 22, 2022. (John Minchillo/AP)Kopech had an incredible outing in Game 2 of the doubleheader, allowing one hit with six strikeouts and two walks in seven innings. He retired the first 17 batters before Rob Brantly broke up his perfect game with a two-out double in the sixth.Advertisement“I was still doing everything that I needed to do back in Chicago, throwing and working out,” Kopech said of his week. “But I was definitely more focused on the baby I had on the way, and he came and he was healthy. And then I got a call that I needed to come back, and I showed up and tried to get refocused.”Kopech retired the final 13 batters in his May 15 start against the Yankees at Guaranteed Rate Field. Combine that with Sunday, and that’s 30 straight hitters.“I felt like I got into a rhythm the last time I faced them and I started off in a rhythm today and tried not to lose that,” Kopech said. “I like to face a good team and they’re a great team.”He lowered his ERA to 1.29 in earning his first win of the season.“My man just had a baby the other day and I was telling him dad strength got him 10 extra pitches in that game,” Sox outfielder/first baseman Andrew Vaughn said with a laugh. “It was awesome to see that. He’s been throwing the ball so well and we finally got him some runs.”[ [Don’t miss] Chicago White Sox — with Lucas Giolito back and Lance Lynn 3 weeks away — could soon have 7 starters: ‘We hope we have that problem’ ]Kopech capped a tremendous day of pitching for the Sox.AdvertisementJohnny Cueto started it off in Game 1, allowing six hits in six-plus scoreless innings. Joe Kelly entered with two runners on and no outs in the seventh, working out of the jam without allowing a run. Kendall Graveman bounced back after surrendering a solo homer to Aaron Judge, giving the Sox a chance to win before Hendriks closed out the Game 1 win with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth.The Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth inning in the second game of the doubleheader.Two force plays at the plate and a strikeout later, they came up empty.But they finally broke loose in the eighth.“I was looking at the scoreboard, I said ‘We’ve got eight hits, let’s do something right here,’” Vaughn said. “And then some good things happened.”The Sox scored five runs on five hits. The runs, RBI singles by Vaughn and Reese McGuire, and Anderson’s three-run homer, all came with two outs.AdvertisementThe Sox also had clutch hits late in first game of the doubleheader, with AJ Pollock breaking the tie in the ninth with a solo shot and Adam Engel driving in Vaughn with a double.The Sox know they have work to do with runners in scoring position. They are 11th in the American League with a .227 average in that category (73-for-322).They went 3-for-13 in that department Saturday and 2-for-8 in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader. They were 4-for-15 in Game 2, with the eighth-inning breakthrough leading the way, helping the Sox finish 5-3 on their two-city road trip.“It’s one of those things you can laugh about later, all the opportunities that we had,” La Russa said. “We’re going to work on that man on third (situation). We’ll get better. And then to explode like that (in the eighth), this game you can never figure it.”

Sports

Aaron Boone showed he’s the rare manager with a backbone in the Josh Donaldson fiasco

Time and time again, the relationship between player and manager forces the manager to mindlessly defend their player, sticking up for their guy no matter what the situation may be.Whether someone on the other side pimps a home run, or an umpire rings someone on their team up on a pitch well off the plate, the manager’s job is to stand up for their own.AdvertisementBut when it came to Josh Donaldson’s misguided taunt of White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, a Black player whom Donaldson referred to as “Jackie,” it was refreshing to see Yankees manager Aaron Boone go with his heart over his managerial duties.“When I first heard the name Jackie, I was really taken aback,” Boone said on Sunday. “Frankly, I was upset about it myself.”AdvertisementBoone went on to say that even if there was some previous relationship between the players, which Donaldson believed made the comment more of a playful joke, he doesn’t think that’s something his white third baseman should say to a Black person.From a human perspective, that’s a fairly easy statement to make. Not making racially driven jokes about people is a pretty easy thing to get on board with. But so often in the past, managers across Major League Baseball have let the name on the front of their jersey dictate their decisions. If the person under fire is on their team, the manager will often lean on empty statements about needing more information or reviewing things internally, even if it’s clear as day that their guy screwed up.That’s not what Boone did at all. While he acknowledged that the context of the situation is important — Anderson said he felt like “today’s Jackie Robinson” in a 2019 interview and Donaldson told reporters that he’s called Anderson the name before in jest without it being an issue — Boone also drew a pretty hard line, by MLB manager standards, against Donaldson’s comments. In saying that he wants the notorious agitator to “rein it in” and “read the room,” Boone went about as close to denouncing his own player as a manager can.Boone and his wife Laura have two Black children, Jeanel and Sergot, whom they adopted from Haiti. During the 2020 season, in the wake of Jacob Blake being shot seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisc., Boone broke down in a press conference when discussing how hard and heavy that year had been.Aaron Boone: “It’s been a hard and heavy year, and a heartbreaking year in so many ways.”Giancarlo Stanton: “When are people finally going to listen?” pic.twitter.com/ibN8QRispj— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 28, 2020

“A heartbreaking year in so many ways,” Boone said on Aug. 28, 2020, five days after Blake was shot. He briefly got up and left that press conference to compose himself emotionally before returning.“I think that’s the case for a lot of people of all different backgrounds and races. My prayer is that we continue — even though we’re going through some dark times — [so] that at the end of this, we’re better. That’s my continued prayer.”An incident like the one Donaldson created is a pretty direct opposition to Boone’s wishes. While Donaldson is adamant that he invoked Jackie Robinson’s name as part of a wink-wink joke with Anderson, the fact of the matter is that Anderson didn’t appreciate it. Or, as David Cone put it during Sunday’s broadcast, “If Tim Anderson felt disrespected, that’s good enough for me.”In situations where someone from a historically oppressed group voices an issue with someone from outside that group’s treatment of them, particularly on issues of race, it’s rarely a good idea to side with the outsider. Instead, as many marginalized people have been saying for years (including Giancarlo Stanton on the same day of Boone’s teary-eyed plea for improvement), it’s of paramount importance to simply listen.AdvertisementBoone got that right over the weekend. While he didn’t go as far as fully planting his flag on the White Sox’s side, Boone did say that Donaldson should not have gone there and hopes that the first-year Yankee understands the significance of what he said. That is more than many managers likely would have said, and Boone deserves some kudos for separating his pinstripe loyalty from real life issues that transcend the baseball diamond.It’s not about scoring “woke points” or trying to publicly posture in a way that makes you look like a good person. It’s about doing the right thing and acknowledging when someone is upset about the way they were treated because of the color of the skin.Aaron Boone seems to understand that. Josh Donaldson — who said he apologized if Anderson deemed it disrespectful, not “I apologize for saying something out of bounds” — could benefit from taking a page out of his skipper’s book.