Thursday’s retirement ceremony for former two-time All-Star Tim Anderson felt sudden, even with advanced notice.
“He feels like the story of why Major League Baseball players try to get what they can get when they can get it, because it happens so fast,” said former Sox announcer Jason Benetti, in town to call the game for the Tigers. “His story is some of the brightest lightning in the largest bottle for a time. And then suddenly it’s gone.”
The highlights of Anderson played on the Rate Field Jumbotron were of pristine video quality. The old Southside City Connect jerseys the team played in triggered a nostalgia for an era where Anderson was the heartbeat of the franchise, but were in use in 2024. Just before Anderson was bathed in applause by a thankful crowd, he was congratulated by Tommy Pham–five years his senior–before the Sox DH continued on to his pregame warmups.
Reached for comment, former White Sox general manager Rick Hahn recalled an anecdote that feels ancient–Anderson convincing him to approve Team USA playing him at second base, and keying a mercy-rule romp of Canada in the World Baseball Classic–and also was from just three years ago.
“That was TA,” Hahn told the Sun-Times. “Teams were just better when he was in there and setting the tone, which is something he loved to do.”
He loved it, but as has been clear since Anderson announced his retirement in an emotional Zoom session last month, and even upon his return to Rate Field on Thursday night, it took a lot out of him.
“I looked at it like if I wasn’t nervous, I wasn’t ready,” Anderson said Thursday. “That first at-bat, I’m always nervous.”
In Chicago early last season playing for the Angels, Anderson speculated that pushing himself to play through the nagging injuries late in his career also altered the mechanics of a swing that captured the 2019 batting title, and four-straight seasons of a .300 average or better. Others, including former teammates, felt his off-the-field mistakes wounded his once indomitable mindset.
Anderson felt it all, including the large platform his stardom brought, as an everpresent pressure that his enjoyment of the game stopped being able to out-pace. Just discussing his career prompted him to sweat profusely on his Zoom call in August, and before he addressed reporters in the Sox dugout on Thursday, he asked for a towel with which to dot his brow.
“I never wanted to be in that spotlight,” Anderson said. “I just wanted to be me, and that happened.”
Which remains a surreal sentiment for Anderson to express. Earlier this very decade, he felt built for the limelight, even more than he felt built to have a career longer than 991 major league games.
After Tarik Skubal was traded from the Tigers, Benetti found himself watching old video of Anderson ruining the two-time Cy Young winner’s major league debut; homering in the first at-bat of the game and lining an RBI double the following inning, amid a multi-year run of terrorizing Tiger pitching. Playoff games are what Anderson’s White Sox teams had too little of, especially since he had a career .485 postseason batting average.
“You could set anything up, and Tim Anderson was going to spike it out,” Benetti said. “He was going to make moments.
But only now is Anderson truly free to enjoy them. He covered his eyes and hugged his family as a scoreboard video segment of his career came to a close. Before that, he laughed about not having to worry about getting on time for a fastball Thursday night.
Back in the place where he was once at center stage, Anderson seemed content just to watch, and reflect.
“It’s not what you did for me lately, it’s what you did,” Anderson said. “Now, looking back at what I did: pretty cool. Pretty awesome, pretty dope, you know what I mean? It was a whole wave.”