Another great episode of CC Sabathia and Ryan Ruocco’s podcast R2C2. After a great episode with Bauer and Gray, R2C2 brought in another quality guest with Tim Anderson. Anderson is one of the young superstars on a very talented and hungry Chicago White Sox team. Anderson is a special player for the White Sox because he was shaped through the White Sox system. From getting drafted, through the minor leagues and eventually the majors. There’s nothing more satisfying to an organization than watching a young player grow into a every day superstar. 2019 seemed to be that year where Tim Anderson really solidified his stardom after hitting .335 and winning a batting title. What he is most known for though, are his electric bat flips after big home runs. The most famous of them coming against Ben Keller on the Kansas City Royals that later led to a bench clearing scrum after Anderson was hit by Keller on his next at bat. About a week and a half later Anderson again “bat spiked” after hitting a game winning home run against the Detroit Tigers. Anderson opened up with CC and Ryan about the bat flip, his YouTube channel, the culture of baseball and much more in the podcast.
Tim started his Youtube channel because he wanted to let people know who he was and where he comes from. All you see on the highlights are the bat flips and it becomes easy to write him off as a player who thinks he’s bigger than the game. Anderson wasn’t having any of that and wanted to show the fans the person behind the bat flip and how he works so hard for moments like that. That in those moments, when he’s able to come through he’s going to let his emotions go because of everything he had to go through to get in that position. I also thought it was interesting to hear him say that he also wanted to fire up his team, which I can totally get behind. It made me think of when a hockey player will start a fight to get his team into the game and fire them up if they are low on energy. They want to be that fire that ignites their team to win. Anderson went on to say, “If your being real or authentic, that’s when I’m going to get the best of you.” When a player can be who they truly are, then all they have to do is focus on playing the game. He went on to explain how important clubhouse culture is to a team for young guys coming up in the program. The fact that at times it was hard to connect and be yourself around a group of veteran guys. The most important clubhouse cultures don’t create barriers but make guys feel like they belong. It’s crazy to think how important it is for big time guys in organization to interact with the younger guys coming up because it can be intimidating as hell coming into a new place and feeling like they don’t belong. That helps alleviate some pressure and allow them to succeed. Anderson is great a player for the younger generation of fan because he understands how to create content. He does everything for his channel besides shoot it. It allows him to connect to a whole new younger generation of fans that live and breath for social media content. Most young players coming up now have had and used social media a lot, so they know how to promote and create content themselves, almost making them their own brand. I can go on and on about the episode, but these were some of the points I wanted to highlight. I highly recommend watching the whole episode for al the great content.
Any sport consists of pressure building up and up to certain moments and in those moments of failure or success all that build up comes to a climax. So why not after all that intense concentration and stress, in that moment of success, can you not let it all out? A scream, a tiger fist pump, the pounding of your chest, a bat flip. A moment where all your emotions get poured out and you just live in the moment. Because your whole life and hard work has led up to moments like these. The long hours, the sleepless nights, the pain, the sweat. All you suffered through has just become a moment of pure bliss. So you have every right to lose it in the moment. These become special moments in sports history and continue to write the story of the sport. The story of how the game continues to grow and evolve. In those moments you win, let it all out. In the moments of loss, take it all in. Use that as motivation for your next big moment and in your moment of success, you let all your emotions out. I promise you, it will make that moment even sweeter. To be on the end of both spectrums is important for learning and growth. So I’m with Tim Anderson, people don’t understand the struggles he’s gone through to be put in that moment and when he succeeds he’s going to let you know it. Some people let go and show their emotions and some react like it’s no big deal. But MLB has to make it clear that it fully stands behind their “let the kids play” movement.
The Washed Up Athlete 