Tim Anderson has been the talk of the Windy City playing for the White Sox, but more for his off-the-field actions than his on-the-field play.
Earlier this year, the 30-year-old the two-time All-Star shortstop admitted to stepping out on his wife Bria Anderson, with whom he has two daughters, and having relations with IG model Deja Lenae.
This was not the first time Anderson was accused of cheating on his wife. Back in 2021, a woman named Sierra Maria leaked messages between the pair and asked, “Why does he cheat knowing he is married?”
Unlike with Maria, Anderson ended up getting Lenae pregnant which made the scandal even bigger. This led to an online beef between the wife and the mistress, which Anderson said affected his home and work life.
Anderson, who made his major league debut in 2016, had his breakout season in 2019, hitting .335 to win the American League batting title. A highlight was his play in that year’s Field of Dreams game, where he hit the walk-off home run in a 9-8 victory over the Yankees, which spotlighted him as one of the big-name players in South Side Chicago.
But with more eyes came more scrutiny, and after Anderson couldn’t hit that high again, fans started to pick at his game, as well as his personality. White Sox fans started to notice that Anderson had a “me vs the world” sort of attitude. In that same breakout year, Anderson called himself “today’s Jackie Robinson” in a Sports Illustrated interview because of what he said was his breaking down the “have-fun” barrier.
The New York Yankees’ Josh Donaldson, a white third baseman, began mocking Anderson by calling him “Jackie” that same year, and last year during an early season game in the Bronx that taunting came to a head with an altercation that led to both benches being cleared. A sign of things to come.
By this season fans on the r/whitesox Reddit page were chiming in on how they felt about Anderson, who is currently .242.
“Ever since the Field of Dreams game. It seems like once he got a little spotlight, he went full a— hat. You never go full a- – hat.”
“Anderson is playing like his abilities were stolen by the Monstars. There are a lot of guys in this league that I don’t like, but that I respect. With TA I don:t do either.”
One Twitter user said, “Tim Anderson got aired out for cheating online, having the worst season of his career and just got knocked on national TV. All of this over the last 4 months.”
The combination of a horrible baseball year on/off the field reached new heights last Saturday. During a game between the Cleveland Guardians and White Sox, Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez hit a nice drive to right field and slid into second.
Anderson took the slide personally, his hard tag led to words being exchanged, the players squaring off, and Ramirez delivered a right better than Jake Paul, leaving Anderson on jelly legs and then down. Even though the White Sox won, Ramirez left Cleveland’s Progressive Field as the fan favorite.
Anderson however just left, not talking to the media after the game and getting slapped with a sevven-game suspension. He responded by opting to change his profile pic to O Block legend King Von and going on an expletive-laced Twitter rant calling out people for switching up and kicking him while he was down.
The most telling post however says, “been going through this s*** for a min…” basically admitting that he’s had a special kind of rough year.
Observers of Anderson’s Twitter rant gave their two cents on what has been happening .
“Don’t play the victim now… you poked the bear and got popped real good! I’d worry bout that .245 avg and 1 HR, not getting TKO. Facts..” said one person.
Another said, “People can laugh and joke all they want but will never know or be sympathetic to what triggers a man so easily sometimes, find peace dawg and heal within.”
With a $25 million salary in the final year of his contract, combined with some of the worst stats in the league, his behavior off the field, and this new suspension, fans are calling for Chicago’s second team to look at shipping out Anderson. If that happens we may have to think about putting Tim Anderson on the list of all-time career meltdowns.