(670 The Score) 670 The Score host Laurence Holmes didn’t mince words when reflecting on Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson calling White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson “Jackie” Robinson during a game Saturday, a comment that Chicago manager Tony La Russa called “racist” and which Anderson took issue with.
“What he decided was the best way for me to get under Tim’s skin is to be a bigot,” Holmes said Monday.
Holmes noted that the most telling aspect of the controversy is that no Yankee has stood up strongly for Donaldson, who had a shoving incident at third base with Anderson during a game on May 13 and who had a parking lot confrontation with White Sox ace Lucas Giolito amid a war of words in 2021. Yankees manager Aaron Boone called it wrong for Donaldson to have made the “Jackie” comment toward Anderson.
“There’s been no defense from the folks inside the Yankees dugout or clubhouse,” Holmes said. “If the folks on the White Sox are telling you ‘This is a bad dude,’ he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. That’s where it’s at. I understand that people think the worst thing people can be called is a racist, but you should only give the benefit of the doubt to people who deserve it. And Josh Donaldson does not deserve it. He doesn’t deserve you putting on the cape and trying to rescue him. He’s a bad guy and should be treated as such.”
Donaldson explained that his “Jackie” comment toward Anderson was a joke and a reference to Anderson referring to himself as a modern-day Jackie Robinson in a Sports Illustrated article in 2019. Anderson and the White Sox have pushed back at the idea that it could be a joke, noting that the relationship with Donaldson has been contentious as opposed to a friendly nature in which a joke might be shared.
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