Saturday’s fight between Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson attracted plenty of attention, but there were plenty of questions about what, exactly, started the incident.
Ramirez offered a hint about what went down after the game. Through a translator, Ramirez told reporters after the game that Anderson had been “disrespecting the game.”
“I think he’s been disrespecting the game for a while,” Ramirez said. “It’s not from yesterday or from before. I even had the chance to tell him during the game, don’t do this stuff, just stay respectful, don’t start tagging people like that. Because in reality, we’re here trying to find ways to provide for our families. When he does the thing that he does on the bases, he could get somebody out of the game. So for me, I was telling him to stop doing that. As soon as the play happened, he tagged me at the end really hard, more than needed, and then he just reacted and said ‘I want to fight.’ If he wanted to fight, I have to defend myself.”
Ramirez added that part of his issue stemmed from a play on Friday night, which saw Anderson knock Guardians rookie Brayan Rocchio’s hand off second base while applying a tag. Ramirez and the Guardians clearly saw it as gamesmanship on Anderson’s part, and were even more infuriated when a replay review awarded the White Sox the out.
Terry Francona has been ejected in the 4th inning after disputing an overturned call at second base.#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/USTo0NCaJK
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Ramirez cited the play as an example of the disrespect he was alluding to. Ramirez suggested that Anderson had tried to pull the same move on him Saturday, which led to the confrontation.
“He’s been doing that, but also, yesterday was a reinforcement,” Ramirez added via his translator. “What bothered me, he’s a younger guy, a rook, new to the league, so he might not react like that. When he did it again, and his first reaction is ‘I want to fight’, at that point I have to defend myself.”
Ironically, Anderson has previously been bothered by other players doing what he is accused of here. Ramirez clearly feels this has been going on for a while and someone needed to call Anderson out over it.
Anderson and Ramirez are almost certain to be suspended over the incident, but based on his knockdown, Ramirez will probably have had the last laugh.
