White Sox: Tim Anderson’s Social Media Presence

White Sox shortstop didn’t waste any time in letting his voice be heard throughout social media after his exuberant home run display.

With new eras of the world comes new eras of sports. In what is strongly considered the social media era, sports have not disappointed. The recent Antonio Brown situation caught the attention of the whole sports world. It is an example of why social media has a huge part in sports today.

The MLB is no exception to this. Today’s MLB rosters are filled with a majority of millennials, and that is evident with the presence of most players on social media.  In what is considered a mostly old school sport, baseball players are adding a modern touch to the game by contributing heavily to the movement that is the social media era. With an average age of 27.7 according to ESPN, the White Sox, who have traditionally been quiet in news, have been making a splash on social media.

A big indicator of this came on Wednesday when Tim Anderson‘s home run followed by a bat flip sparked debate throughout the whole baseball world. Was it bush league? Immature? Unprofessional? Or just symbolism for how the game is today? Well, plenty of people chimed in on the matter on Wednesday. In fact, things got rather chippy on the web. The best part? It was between players instead of fans for once.

The Blue Jays’ Randal Grichuk gave his opinion (or at least it appeared so) on the Anderson bat flip. Like a lot of twitter users yesterday, he frowned upon the flip. So what, Grichuk gave his opinion on a highly debated topic. Who cares? Well, here’s where it gets good. Anderson definitely cared, and it was awesome.

Like any millennial would, Anderson got offended by what us young people call an “indirect tweet”. He responded by doing what the majority of us would. Personally, I think it was awesome. The hottest bat in all of MLB took the time to fire back at another player on Twitter. Does it get any better? It does, actually.

https://twitter.com/rgrich15/status/1118731712261963776?s=12

This ladies and gentlemen can now be officially considered what we call “beef”. Two players going back and forth on Twitter, it’s awesome. It brings excitement to the game. It attracts younger fans, as the majority of them can probably relate. It adds a little incentive to the next matchup between the Sox and Toronto. People can say what they want about it, but at the end of the day, it’s good for the game. People love it.

As a White Sox fan, it feels good to see the majority of fellow baseball fans standing behind Anderson not only when it comes to the bat flip but also for his interactions on Twitter. As I said, people love to see it. As a 20-year-old raised in the fire of the social media age, I know I love to see it. It adds a touch of modernism to the game that is typically considered old school. It adds a little outside excitement to the game, and it makes these players much more relatable. They’re human too.

I wrote during the offseason about how social media has contributed to what seems to be a culture change in the White Sox franchise. This incident on Wednesday is a great example of it. The White Sox are drawing in fans because of what is occurring on social media.

As much as I loved the players like Paul Konerko, Mark Buehrle, and Alexei Ramirez who just played the game and stayed quiet outside of the game, I must say, I love seeing these young guys doing things like this. You wouldn’t see this in any other age, and I believe we as fans have to embrace it.

The White Sox roster is full of passionate kids that are tremendous baseball players that love the game, but also have the tendencies of 90’s kids within them. It’s new to the game, it’s awesome, and I truly hope it continues.