Jose Ramirez explains what led to fight with Tim Anderson 

Saturday’s fight between Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson attracted plenty of attention, but there were plenty of questions about what, exactly, started the incident.

Ramirez offered a hint about what went down after the game. Through a translator, Ramirez told reporters after the game that Anderson had been “disrespecting the game.”

“I think he’s been disrespecting the game for a while,” Ramirez said. “It’s not from yesterday or from before. I even had the chance to tell him during the game, don’t do this stuff, just stay respectful, don’t start tagging people like that. Because in reality, we’re here trying to find ways to provide for our families. 

"When he does the thing that he does on the bases, he could get somebody out of the game. So for me, I was telling him to stop doing that. As soon as the play happened, he tagged me at the end really hard, more than needed, and then he just reacted and said ‘I want to fight.’ If he wanted to fight, I have to defend myself.”

Ramirez added that part of his issue stemmed from a play on Friday night, which saw Anderson knock Guardians rookie Brayan Rocchio’s hand off second base while applying a tag. 

Ramirez and the Guardians clearly saw it as gamesmanship on Anderson’s part and were even more infuriated when a replay review awarded the White Sox the out.