(670 The Score) White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson’s heroics in hitting a walk-off homer against the Yankees to win the “Field of Dreams” game Thursday night reinforced a belief that Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Buck holds.
“I think Tim Anderson should be the face of baseball,” Buck said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Friday evening, a day after he was on the call for the “Field of Dreams” event. “I really do. I think he’s everything right about the game. He’s all energy. The guy plays his tail off. He is awesome. And for him to step up in that moment, to represent the White Sox and to walk it off like that on that kind of a stage, those are little things that happen along the way that turn into bigger things. I think baseball has got to latch on to him even more. I just think he’s everything this game should be celebrating.”
What could MLB do to better promote Anderson and its other stars?
“They’ve got to get ad campaigns going for these guys,” Buck said. “It’s Tim Anderson. It’s always been Mike Trout, but he’s playing in southern California, and he’s really not been a part of the postseason except for three games. Forever, he’s been the best player on the planet. Well, now you’ve got (Fernando) Tatis (Jr.) and Vlad Guerrero Jr. and you’ve got multi-cultural stars that can bring not just people in this country to the game and under the tent but people from other countries that can latch onto these players and can latch onto these teams and can latch onto Major League Baseball.
Whatever they have to do. They have to buy – and it’s easy for me to spend other people’s money – but buy little pieces of time and have somebody show their personality. I don’t care how wacky it is. Get behind a TikTok thing. Get behind something that is signed off on by Major League Baseball that shows (these guys’ personality). Tim Anderson, you can put a camera on him as we did (Thursday) night and he was mic’d up for us. He played ball as well. It takes cooperation from the player as well. But you can’t take your eyes off the guy. At least I can’t. I think he’s that dynamic of a player playing shortstop, leading off, being aggressive. I think those aggressive type, let’s have fun, let’s do it the right way but let’s be electric – Major League Baseball has for a long time has kind of steered away from that stuff. And I think they need to steer into it.”
Anderson, 28, is hitting .299 with 13 homers, 47 RBIs, 73 runs and a .781 OPS in 99 games in 2021. He earned All-Star honors for the first time this season.