DETROIT — On the morning after the bat flip heard around the baseball world, Tim Anderson had no problem drowning out the noise.
“I slept real good,” the White Sox shortstop said. “I slept like a baby.”
Anderson’s three-quarter sidearm chuck of his bat toward the Sox dugout after a long game-tying home run against the the Royals’ Brad Keller Wednesday had everyone talking about unwritten rules, whether Anderson was showing up the Royals, and what’s too much in baseball’s limited world of celebrations.
“I would do it all over the same,” Anderson said before the Sox played the Tigers in Detroit Thursday afternoon. “Keep going. I can’t worry about that. It don’t phase me. Nothing bothers me. Keep bringing a lot of energy and keep having fun.”
While everyone was taking sides, Anderson was on the field continuing his hot first month, going 2-for-5 with two runs and a stolen base in a rag-tag 9-7 Sox loss to the Tigers. Anderson had no homers to celebrate, but he busted a little move with Eloy Jimenez after the Sox’ prized rookie belted his third homer of the season.
Anderson was in a good mood before the game, saying he threw the bat to help out the Sox batboy.
The Royals were not Wednesday, believing they were being shown up, and right-hander Brad Keller retaliated by hitting Anderson in the butt with a pitch his next time up.
Talk show hosts, both national and local, had their say. And then there was this, from Blue Jays outfielder Randal Grichuk on Twitter:
“Guys are getting a little excessive on pimping HRs, on meaningless HRs too. Act like you have done it before, one time.”
To which Anderson replied: “Put a name on so we can see who you talking bout brah.”
“He plays with a lot of heart and emotion and I’m sure if he was on anybody else’s team, they’d love to have him, too,” Renteria said. “He’s our guy and I want him to have fun and he’s going to continue to have fun.”
“That’s what my teammates want,” he said. “I think it brings a lot of spark to the team and a lot of energy. I think nothing bad on my end.
“I never looked at one of their players when I hit it. I just looked in our dugout and threw the bat. It was a bomb. It was a bomb. I smoked it so I got excited. I wanted to help the bat boy out a little bit so I threw it to him.”
And not every player shared Grichuk’s take. Grichuk’s Jays teammate Marcus Stroman — who exchanged words with Anderson after striking him out in 2017, sparking a bench clearing incident — said, “I could care less if someone pimps a homer off me. I gave it up. Showing emotion is part of the game and by doing so you are able able to play at your most elite level.”
And Reds pitcher Amir Garrett said on Twitter that baseball players have thin skin compared to other athletes and “couldn’t survive playing another sport.”
If demonstrations of emotion makes the game more fun and interesting at a time when baseball has a problem attracting a young generation of fans, the push back should be contained.
“I think we are on a new generation, a new wave,” Anderson said. “I think the game is switching and changing to a lot of younger guys. We are getting it. I think that’s what gets guys going. It’s fun doing stuff like that. It’s fun.”
