Donaldson’s Quote Lands Him in Hot Water

During the Yankee-White Sox game, Josh Donaldson made a racially charged comment alluding to Jackie Robinson when speaking to player Tim Anderson. 

During the first inning of the game, Donaldson said to Anderson, “What’s up, Jackie?” 

The White Sox manager Tony La Russa heard the comment and told the media that it was a racial comment toward Anderson. 

After the game, Donaldson admitted that he did in fact call him Jackie, but he claimed it was a joke because Anderson called himself Jackie Robinson in an earlier interview. 

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do,” Arron Judge said.

This also was a contributing factor to the two teams’ bench-clearing as well as the warrants given to both teams for the incident on the field. 

Another reason Donaldson might have made the comment was because of a pick-off attempt the previous week, causing the two to collide into each other. 

After the game, reporters and press went over and interviewed the Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone. The reporters asked about the comment, and Boone did not think Donaldson had any malicious intent behind his remark to Anderson. Boone also said this is not the way he wants Donaldson to go and wants to prevent incidents like this one from happening in the future. 

The White Sox fans on social media, a few of their coaches, and Anderson are not happy about the single-game suspension for the comment.

“What’s the point or message behind a one game suspension?” the White Sox´s pitching coach Ethan Katz said. 

He also stated that the suspension was “disappointing and plain frustrating.” This might have been because the White Sox could not do anything about what the MLB does to punish Donaldson for his actions.