Former Chicago White Sox All-Star and American League batting champion Tim Anderson announced his retirement on an emotional video call with reporters Monday morning.
During the call, Anderson, 33, started crying and constantly wiped sweat from his brow that was caused, he said, by the weight of the moment.
“As you can see, the game brung a lot of good moments,” he said, “but it also brung a lot of pain. It gives me anxiety just even … talking about baseball. I’m sweating now.
“I want to be as open as I can,” he continued. “The game brought a lot of pain, a lot of great moments, but just throughout playing, it definitely was a lot of dark moments.”
The pressure was intense because on the field, Anderson became the symbol for a White Sox team searching for an identity while he was dealing with issues in his personal life.
Anderson won an AL batting title in 2019 and was the centerpiece of the “Change the Game” campaign as the White Sox rebuild took shape, peaking in 2021 with the team’s first division title since 2008. The Sox also made the playoffs in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, marking the only time in franchise history the White Sox have reached the postseason in consecutive seasons.
His biggest moment was hitting a walk-off homer into the corn at the Field of Dreams Game in 2021, and he also inspired a national conversation about adding personality back to baseball with his bat-flipping celebrations. For years, there has been a focus on the declining number of African American stars in baseball, and Anderson, a native of Alabama, the state that has produced several Black baseball legends, was the face of a new generation.
Tim Anderson jumps into the pile to celebrate his walk-off home run during the 2021 Field of Dreams game. (Ron Vesely / Getty Images)
“We had A.J. (Pierzynski), A.J. had a pretty big personality, but we’ve never had someone with the swagger and confidence of Tim Anderson, which seems to be carrying through the clubhouse,” White Sox vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer told me before the 2021 season.
This led to Anderson receiving national advertising opportunities and plenty of local fame. But that came with a cost, he said, and the pressure affected him in different ways.
“I worked my whole life to get there,” he said. “I never knew the route. I never knew which turn. I never had no guidance. I just kept going. As you know, that was my saying: Just keep going. I know I came to the ballpark every day ready to compete, ready to play for that logo that’s on the front of the jersey, and that’s what I did. Nobody knows what I sacrificed and what the body felt every day.”
Anderson was drafted with the No. 17 pick in the 2013 MLB Draft out of East Central Community College in Mississippi and debuted with the White Sox in 2016. Over eight seasons with the team, he hit .282, winning a batting title in 2019 with a .335 average and finishing in the top five in that statistic the next two years. He was an All-Star in 2021 and started at shortstop for the American League in the 2022 Midsummer Classic. He hit .309 that season, but a groin injury limited him to 79 games. His game never rebounded.
In 2023, his production nosedived and he infamously got knocked down by the Guardians’ José Ramirez in a brief, viral fight in Cleveland. As Anderson recounted in an interview with “The Pivot” podcast, he was also going through personal and family issues during this period.
The Sox, who were in the middle of an organizational free fall, let him go in free agency after the season. He played in Miami in 2024 and with the Angels in 2025 before getting released in May of last year. Lower body and leg injuries hampered a return to form.
“I fought to try to get back,” he said. “I fought for the last two or three years. I trained and just couldn’t get the body to operate like it used to.”
Anderson said he’s in a good place now, living in suburban Atlanta with his wife and children. Not having to worry about hitting curveballs has done a lot for his mental health, he joked.
“Waking up and being able to be around my kids and really living a real life, because life is bigger than trying to make people happy with a bat and a ball, you know what I mean?” he said. “So now that I get to step outside of that and see what life is, I’m really enjoying it.”
The White Sox will honor him before a Sept. 17 game. Anderson will throw out the first pitch and the team will wear the “Southside” alternate uniforms that he helped make famous.
“I am Chicago,” he told The Athletic in 2021. “I will rock the gear. Just because I’m playing for them doesn’t mean I won’t rock it. I’ll rock it more now.”
He said he wants to return to the resurgent Sox franchise to help in any way he can. Despite being a first-round pick, Anderson was a project, a basketball player who didn’t seriously take up baseball until his late teens. No one projected him to win a batting title or become an All-Star shortstop, but the White Sox gave him an opportunity to change his life.
“I am definitely happy for my moments,” he said. “But I get sad talking about it because that’s the first team that gave me my opportunity. It took a chance on me. I didn’t have a crazy resume. I didn’t play all the crazy little camps and stuff. They gave me a shot and they stuck by my side. I think it’s only right that I get to come back and retire a White Sox.”
After the tears subsided during the call, a familiar smile returned. Once he got through the hard part, Anderson sounded lighter and more relaxed than he ever did as a player.
“I finally get a chance to be open with you guys because when I was playing, it was just straight business,” he said. “So now being on this side, I get to feel those emotions. I feel all that stuff. And so finally to get the chance to really be in it and soak it in and enjoy the fruits of the labor. I’m excited about that and no better place to do it than the South Side.”
