White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson is having fun playing baseball again. It is evident in the way he bounces around the diamond and playfully needles his teammates in the clubhouse. But the byproduct of a carefree (not necessarily careless) attitude is venom from the established elite.
Justin Verlander was less than happy with Anderson after attempting to steal second in the fifth inning. Anderson had just broken up Verlander’s no-hit bid and Verlander took exception to the way Anderson handled his quasi-achievement. The following is an excerpt from NBC Sports Chicago’s Vinnie Duber:
“I wasn’t upset with him being excited about getting a hit,” Verlander told reporters after the game. “Hey, that’s baseball and you can be excited about getting a hit, he earned it. He steals on 3-0 in a 5-0 game, that’s probably not great baseball. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, I don’t know. But he celebrated that, though. And it’s like ‘Hey, I’m not worried about you right now. It’s 5-0, I’m giving a high leg kick, I know you can steal. If I don’t want you to steal, I’ll be a little bit more aware of you. But I’m trying to get this guy out at the plate.’
“Anyway, I walk (Narvaez), (Anderson) steals 3-0, kind of celebrates that at second base again. I don’t even know what he was celebrating, he didn’t even get credit for a stolen base. Maybe he thought he did, I don’t know.
“Then he makes, in my opinion, another bad baseball decision. Stealing third in a 5-0 game with two guys on in an inning where I was clearly struggling — I walked a guy on four pitches and went 1-0 to the next guy — and I pick you off on an inside move after the way he had kind of been jubilant about some other things, I was just as jubilant about that. Very thankful that he gave me an out. That’s what I said, and he didn’t like that comment but, hey, that’s not my fault, that’s his fault.
“I’m not going to let the situation dictate what I do out there, I’m going to slow everything down and that’s what veterans can do — see the game, play the game, play the game the right way. He was a little over-aggressive and I let him know it. I took offense to it.”
Yes, this is the kind of nonsense that fans despise and players struggle to understand. Verlander comes off as salty in this exchange, but Anderson made a boneheaded move at second that cost his team an out, just the kind of mistake Rick Renteria has preached about avoiding.
And his celebrations after a routine single in the fifth and swiping a bag down five runs? Yea, that’s not something to celebrate. Still, if Anderson needs to celebrate the minor victories to survive a depressing stretch of losses, so be it. He didn’t cross the line where teams will target Anderson the rest of the series. Verlander was just being sensitive and Anderson doesn’t give much of a flip about what he thinks.
“I don’t care what other people think, that don’t bother me.“I’m out just playing and having fun. If he took it to heart, so what?”
