in his sights

In a season of gloom for the Chicago White Sox, Tim Anderson has been a major bright spot. The ex-East Central Community College star leads the American League in hitting and looks on track to becoming the first Mississippi-connected player to claim a batting title in 41 years. Anderson, a career .274 hitter, is batting .334 after a 2-for-5 effort (in a loss) on Saturday. He also has 16 homers, 52 RBIs, 69 runs and 16 steals in 107 games. The fourth-year big leaguer, a shortstop, had a 20-homer/20-steal campaign in 2018 but batted just .240. How has he made the 90-point improvement? “The main thing was just getting good pitches to hit and laying off all the stuff they threw me last year, which was sliders in the other batter’s box,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. Three Mississippi natives have won batting titles: Buddy Myer in 1935 with Washington, Harry Walker in 1947 with St. Louis (after being traded from Philadelphia) and Dave Parker in 1977 and again in ’78 with Pittsburgh. Anderson, an Alabama native, was a first-round pick by the White Sox in 2013 after leading ECCC to a state championship. Some Mississippi Braves fans might recall that Anderson had three hits in his first Double-A game while playing for Birmingham at Trustmark Park in 2014.