Just say it: Josh Donaldson made a racist comment to Tim Anderson

A comment about race? We can safely and correctly assume that a lot of the comments aboutJackie Robinson are racist. Robinson was the first black player in baseball. He is a significant figure in the racial history of the United States. That's a really weird thing to think about.

It's weird to accuse someone of doing something they admit to doing.

• ESPN: “Comment by New York Yankees’ Josh Donaldson to Chicago White Sox star Tim Anderson called ‘racist’”

A double passive voice doesn't cancel out the chickenshit aspect of writing this headline.

• Barstool Sports: “Josh Donaldson is a scumbag”

It was the best so far, if lacking context, and written as such because it was the irritant Donaldson, who is now on the Yankees, and it happened against the White Sox. Barstool, y'know, is the only race in the headline.

• Outkick: “Tim Anderson, Tony La Russa say Josh Donaldson made a ‘racist comment’”

This? Who got it right? And summarized it correctly?

Donaldson admitted that he called Anderson “Jackie,” during the first inning, in reference to a 2019 interview with Sports Illustrated where Anderson described himself as feeling like “today’s Jackie Robinson.” Donaldson apologized for the comment and said he meant no disrespect. Anderson, who is Black, said he took offense to the comment.

Donaldson thought he and Anderson had an inside joke about it, but it wasn't really an apology. He took Anderson's prideful connection to Robinson, and his place in the game as a Black superstar, and made it a joke.

The readership of the one outlet that got it right on Saturday probably doesn't agree with that assessment, but at least they got the incident presented for what it was, instead of the way that everyone else danced around what happened in the Bronx.