White Sox’s Liam Hendriks calls Josh Donaldson’s explanation ‘BS’

There has definitely not been any love lost between White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson and Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson in recent weeks. On Saturday, however, things escalated to say the least and now it seems tensions are still running high.

Friction continues between the White Sox and Yankees

As we said, Saturday brought to a boil what has obviously been cooking between the two players for a little while now. Josh Donaldson who admitted to doing so, called Tim Anderson who is Black, “Jackie” - a reference to MLB legend Jackie Robinson. It was a comment that was not well received by the White Sox player nor his manager Tony La Russa or the entire team for that matter. Indeed, as the game progressed and Donaldson stepped to the plate to bat, he was confronted by White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal and then things got out of hand. The benches of both teams cleared and Anderson would eventually have to be restrained by some of his teammates as the teams shouted and shoved it out. MLB is said to be investigating and here we are. Yet that says nothing of Sunday’s game when the teams met again for a double header. As you can imagine Donaldson’s ‘joke’ was still a talking point and one White Sox player gave his opinion prior to the game.

What did White Sox’s Liam Hendriks have to say?

Speaking just before the start of the game on Sunday, White Sox closer Liam Hendriks weighed didn’t hold back when he spoke about Saturday’s events and Donaldson’s role in them. “Complete bullshit,” were the words Hendriks used when describing Donaldson’s claim that he was joking with Anderson and had no racist intentions. “That’s completely inappropriate, and then after hearing what was said after the game, usually you have inside jokes with the people you get along with, not people that don’t get along at all,” Hendriks said of Donaldson’s explanation. “So that statement right there was complete bullshit. But, then again, my feelings toward the individual in question are pretty well documented that we don’t get along. I’ve now spoken to, I think it’s four separate clubhouses that he’s been into and, as a whole, none of ‘em got along. So, him trying to whip out that narrative is complete and utter bullshit.”

Hendriks didn’t stop there either, in fact we could say that he went all in. “In this clubhouse, we have TA’s back in everything. That was just a completely unacceptable thing and trying to whip it out as being an inside joke, that’s horseshit. They don’t have those sorts of things going on. It’s like having an inside joke with a guy who you are a nemesis with, I guess you could say? But that’s not how it went down in this clubhouse and I don’t understand how he ever thought about it like that, it’s just straight delusional.”

Liam Hendriks and Josh Donaldson have a history

As he mentioned in his comments, Hendriks’ feelings about Donaldson have been documented over time. The pair actually played together back in 2015 when they were on the Blue Jay’s roster. Add to that the fact that Hendriks would later move to the A’s where Donaldson had played the season before and you have a scenario where not only did they get a good look at each other, but so did their teammates as well. Incidentally, it was just a season ago that Hendriks said “playing with Donaldson, I am not a Donaldson fan.” Hendriks would go on to say that while he acknowledged Donaldson as a great player, “I saw behind the curtain too much,” before adding that he watched and seen how Donaldson’s personality “turned many teammates into enemies.”