NEW YORK — White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal didn’t even wait for Yankees designated hitter Josh Donaldson to get into the batter’s box. He screamed curses to ignite a near brawl in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 7-5 win at Yankee Stadium.
Grandal was irate because he heard Donaldson had called White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson “Jackie Robinson” while he was running the bases in the second and third innings. During the benches-clearing incident, Anderson had to be held back by two teammates, then was pushed into his dugout until five minutes worth of pushing and yelling stopped.
“He made a disrespectful comment,” Anderson said. “Basically he’s trying to call me Jackie Robinson by, ‘What’s up Jackie?’ I don’t play like that. It happened the first time (Donaldson) got on and I spared him that time. Then it happened again and it’s just uncalled for.”
White Sox manager Tony La Russa was furious during his short post-game media scrum.
“He made a racist comment,” La Russa said with anger in his voice. “Donaldson. And that’s all I’m going to say. That’s as strong as it gets.”
Anderson and Donaldson first had words after the third inning, then things escalated the next time that Donaldson came to the plate after Giancarlo Stanton led off the Yankees fifth with a single. That’s when Grandal stood up for his teammate.
“What sparked it was the comment (Donaldson) made,” Grandal said. “This game went through a period in time where a lot of those comments were made, and I think we’re way past that. It’s unacceptable. I just thought it was a little low and I wanted to make sure I got my teammate’s back. There’s no way you’re allowed to say something like that.
“Believe me, you don’t want me to tell you guys what I told him.”
Donaldson’s take? He admits saying, “What’s up Jackie?” But he added that he has been referring to Anderson as Jackie Robinson since the star shortstop compared himself to baseball’s first Black ballplayer in a 2019 Sports Illustrated article.
“Okay, let me give you a little context of that,” Donaldson said. “In 2019, (Anderson) came out with an interview and said he was the new Jackie Robinson of baseball and he was going to bring back fun to the game. And in 2019, when I played for Atlanta, we actually joked about that. I don’t know what’s changed from that. It just joking around the fact that he called himself Jackie Robinson. So if something has changed from that, my meaning of that is not any term of trying to be racist.”
Donaldson had his backstory facts correct. In the Sports Illustrated article that he was referring to, Anderson was quoted, “I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson. That’s huge to say, but it’s cool, man, because he changed the game, and I feel like I’m getting to a point to where I need to change the game.”
Anderson didn’t think it was funny on Saturday. He’s not even sure this feud with Donaldson is over.
“We’ll see,” he said. “I can’t really call (what happens next) because I don’t know my energy when I’m see him, and I don’t know his energy. But we’ll see. You never forget about it. It’s always going to be that.”
The White Sox already weren’t happy with Donaldson before this incident. When the Yankees and White Sox played last weekend in Chicago, Anderson shoved Donaldson after being tagged out hard at third base during the first inning of Friday night’s game.
White Sox players also are still upset that Donaldson called out ace pitcher Lucas Giolito last season for doctoring baseballs before MLB’s crackdown on Spider Tack. Donaldson was with Minnesota in 2021 and he did the same thing to Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. When Donaldson joined the Yankees in a spring training trade, the first thing that he did when showing up for his first workout was have a closed-door meeting with Cole and manager Aaron Boone.
Last year’s accusations came up in Grandal’s post-game interview.
“I’m sure he’s going to deny everything (about referring to Anderson as Jackie Robinson) and then maybe go on Twitter and tweet something out just like he did with Giolito last year,” Grandal said. “I guess he lives in his own world.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
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