CLEVELAND — Jose Ramirez has tried to reach out to Tim Anderson , but the latter hasn't responded.
After the fight that took place midway through Saturday's game between the Guardians and Chicago White Sox — that ended with Anderson missing two attempted punches before Ramirez connected with a right hook that sent the White Sox infielder to the ground — Ramirez said Anderson has been "disrespecting the game for a while." The Guardians were already upset with Anderson after a couple of hard tags, namely on rookie Brayan Rocchio Friday night.
Speaking to the Dominican Republic TV show "Show Del Mediodia" and Hector Gomez, Ramirez apologized for the incident and said he has tried to contact Anderson since that night.
"In the light of the recent events, I want to say to the public that I deeply regret what happened between me and Tim Anderson , whom I consider a very good baseball player," Ramirez said on the program. "I've been trying to reach out to him directly and apologize but haven't received an answer. Everyone who knows me, knows well I'm not somebody who's out there looking for trouble.
"It's been part of my personality and behavior to give 100% everyday at the field to help my team and trying to be an example for the younger players on my team. I want to reiterate apologies for my behavior and as always my goal is to help my team to win and reach the postseason. I want to thank everybody in my organization, my teammates and all my fans for their support during this process."
A bizarre debut, SpongeBob and more: The Ramirez-Anderson fight had some odd elements
Major League Baseball handed down suspensions stemming from the altercation on Monday. Anderson received a six-game suspension. Ramirez was given a three-game suspension, although he's appealing it.
Guardians manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh and closer Emmanuel Clase were all given one-game suspensions. Francona and Clase served their suspensions Monday night, and Sarbaugh will serve his Tuesday night. The Guardians didn't want to leave the dugout barren of coaches.
Guardians Infielder Gabriel Arias was also fined an undisclosed amount.
Anderson was checked for a concussion, but the White Sox said the results were negative. After falling to the ground after Ramirez's right hook landed cleanly, Anderson appeared to be wobbly as he was held back and directed toward the White Sox dugout.
Arias and Anderson were chirping at each other throughout Saturday's game. At one point, they were told to "knock it off" by an umpire. Then Ramirez slid into second, Anderson applied a hard tag and dropped his glove to square off with him, and chaos ensued.
But, according to Arias, the frustrations with Anderson started long before that.
"I think it all started back in Chicago. I was playing shortstop, he was being disrespectful, trying to mistreat me because I was a rookie and I felt this game has to be treated with respect," Arias said through a team translator. "And I felt like that show of disrespect started back then and continued in [Saturday's] game. And my only thing that I was telling him, 'If you're going to tell something to somebody, you got to tell them in front of their faces.' And he was chirping while he was in the dugout."
Sarbaugh is one of the most mild-mannered coaches in the game. So when he ran out of the dugout as Ramirez and Anderson began throwing punches, the goal was to try to calm everybody down.
After the initial scuffle, things seemed to be dying down twice, only to be reignited again as tempers flared. The third wave happened to have Sarbaugh right in the middle of it.
"A lot of jarring going on, and I can't really pinpoint what it was, but just one comment kind of got me going, and it just happened," Sarbaugh said. "I don't know what else to say. It's just one of those things that you're initially trying to calm things down, and then I guess I kind of escalated it a little bit more."
In a lot of different respects, what eventually happened was not the original intent.
"I would say Jose probably, and I'm not speaking for him, but I don't think he was thinking it was going to it come to what it was," Sarbaugh said. "I thought he was just kind of letting [Anderson] know he didn't appreciate that [tag].
"And then I think when [Anderson] dropped the glove, they knew it was probably on, but I think he just wanted to let him know, hey, we didn't appreciate the hard tag. And it went from there."
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians Jose Ramirez has reached out to Tim Anderson after fight
