Anderson won an AL batting title in 2019 and was the centerpiece of the \u201cChange the Game\u201d campaign as the White Sox rebuild took shape, peaking in 2021 with the team\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1333866431-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Tim Anderson jumps into the pile to celebrate his walk-off home run during the 2021 Field of Dreams game. (Ron Vesely \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had A.J. (Pierzynski), A.J. had a pretty big personality, but we\u2019ve never had someone with the swagger and confidence of Tim Anderson, which seems to be carrying through the clubhouse,\u201d White Sox vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer told me before the 2021 season.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked my whole life to get there,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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\u2019s on the front of the jersey, and that\u2019s what I did. Nobody knows what I sacrificed and what the body felt every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In 2023, his production nosedived and he infamously got knocked down by the Guardians\u2019 Jos\u00e9 Ramirez in a brief, viral fight in Cleveland<\/a>. As Anderson recounted in an interview with \u201cThe Pivot\u201d podcast<\/a>, he was also going through personal and family issues during this period.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI fought to try to get back,\u201d he said. \u201cI fought for the last two or three years. I trained and just couldn\u2019t get the body to operate like it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n Anderson said he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWaking 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?\u201d he said. \u201cSo now that I get to step outside of that and see what life is, I\u2019m really enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n The White Sox will honor him before a Sept. 17 game. Anderson will throw out the first pitch and the team will wear the \u201cSouthside\u201d alternate uniforms that he helped make famous.<\/p>\n \u201cI am Chicago,\u201d he told The Athletic in 2021. \u201cI will rock the gear. Just because I\u2019m playing for them doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t rock it. I\u2019ll rock it more now.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI am definitely happy for my moments,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I get sad talking about it because that\u2019s the first team that gave me my opportunity. It took a chance on me. I didn\u2019t have a crazy resume. I didn\u2019t play all the crazy little camps and stuff. They gave me a shot and they stuck by my side. I think it\u2019s only right that I get to come back and retire a White Sox.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI finally get a chance to be open with you guys because when I was playing, it was just straight business,\u201d he said. \u201cSo 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\u2019m excited about that and no better place to do it than the South Side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Chicago White Sox All-Star and American League batting champion Tim Anderson announced his retirement on an emotional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2318,2322,2324,363,99],"class_list":["post-809324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}