Tiki Barber saw all the reaction to Josh Donaldson’s “Hey Jackie” comments towards Tim Anderson, and had some strong feelings about the backlash towards what the Yankees third baseman said to spark Saturday’s altercation.
“Josh Donaldson is a jerk…he gets under your skin, he was clearly trying to do this with Tim Anderson calling him ‘Jackie,’ but it’s not racist,” Tiki said during Monday’s show.
“It has nothing to do with race, at least my interpretation of this, is Josh Donaldson trying to get under Tim Anderson’s skin. When we start throwing ‘racist’ out there simply because it’s a white guy talking about a black player, it’s dangerous.”
The “Hey Jackie” comment, according to Donaldson, was intended as a playful jab to an interview Anderson gave with Sports Illustrated, when he said he sees himself as the next Jackie Robinson in the sense that he feels he needs to change certain parts of the game.
But Tiki didn’t see the remark as racist by any means, and thought the situation became overblown as soon as the issue of race was brought into it.
“If Tim Anderson had done an interview back in 2019 for Sports Illustrated and sad ‘I’m the next Babe Ruth’ and not Jackie Robinson…Josh Donaldson would be calling him ‘Babe,’” Tiki said.
“We get inflammatory about things that don’t need to be inflamed…as soon as you throw that ‘racist’ bend into it, it gets nasty and emotional, and people get upset about something that wasn’t intended to be that way.”
Follow WFAN's midday team on Twitter: @TikiandTierney, @TikiBarber, @BrandonTierney, and @TheHoffWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
Listen live to WFAN:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker (just say ‘Play W-F-A-N’)
