Yankees ‘Josh Donaldson recently won a one-game suspension for referring to the White Sox’ Tim Anderson as “Jackie” during a recent game between the two teams. Donaldson’s comment almost sparked a fight between the two teams, and then Chicago coach Tony La Russa referred to the choice of Donaldson’s words, a reference to Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line of the MLB in 1947, as a “racist.”
Announcing Donaldson’s suspension, Michael Hill, MLB’s senior vice president of field operations, described Donaldson’s comment as “disrespectful and misjudged.”
For his part, Donaldson’s teammate Aaron Judge also made an exception with “Jackie’s” comment, albeit in slightly less direct terms.
“I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do about it,” he said. Here’s a look at the judge’s response:
He later said that Donaldson addressed the team regarding the controversy, but Judge reiterated that Donaldson, in his estimation, made a bad decision:
Given the extent to which he is normally Judge in his public comments, this is a significant disapproval of Donaldson’s actions, one issued by perhaps the most visible current Yankees star.
As Judge points out, Donaldson claimed that calling Anderson “Jackie” was part of a long-running internal joke between the two players, and that it was derived from a 2019 Sports Illustrated article quoting Anderson as saying said the following:
“I feel like Jackie Robinson today,” she says. “It’s very important to say that. But it’s great, man, because it changed the game, and I feel like I’m getting to a point where I have to change the game.”
A full reading of the SI piece, however, reveals that Anderson was talking about the isolation he feels as a black player in a predominantly white sport. Our own RJ Anderson recently expanded on this necessary context:
“It should be noted that Anderson’s quote appeared in the middle of an article where the main issue was the isolation he feels as a black man practicing a sport predominantly played, managed and ruled by white men. According to ESPN MLB race and gender ratings, white players account for 57.5 percent of MLB lineups compared to 7.7 percent of African American or Afro-Canadian players. club are white and all but two current general managers: Kim Ng (Asian). -American) and Al Avila (Cuban) – are also white. “
Donaldson has appealed his one-party sanction.