Former Chicago White Sox All-Star and American League batting champion Tim Anderson announced his retirement on an emotional video call with reporters Monday morning. During the call, Anderson, 33, started crying and constantly wiped sweat from his brow that was caused, he said, by the weight of the moment.“As you can see, the game brung a lot of good moments,” he said, “but it also brung lot of pain. It gives me anxiety just even … talking about baseball. I’m sweating now.“I want to be open as I can,” he continued. “The game brought a lot of pain, a lot of great moments, but just throughout playing, it definitely was a lot of dark moments.”The pressure was intense because on the field, Anderson became the symbol for a White Sox team searching for an identity while dealing with issues in his personal life.Anderson won an AL batting title in 2019 and was the centerpiece of the “Change the Game” campaign as the White Sox rebuild took shape, peaking in 2021 with the team’s first division title since 2008. The Sox also made the playoffs in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, marking the only time in franchise history the White Sox have reached the postseason in consecutive seasons.His biggest moment was hitting a walk-off homer into the corn at the Field of Dreams Game in 2021 and he also inspired a national conversation about adding personality back to baseball with his bat-flipping celebrations. For years, there has been a focus on the declining number of African-American stars in baseball and Anderson, a native of Alabama, the state which has produced a number of Black baseball legends, was the face of a new generation.Tim Anderson jumps into the pile to celebrate his walk-off home run during the 2021 Field of Dreams game. (Ron Vesely / Getty Images)“We had A.J. (Pierzynski), A.J. had a pretty big personality, but we’ve never had someone with the swagger and confidence of Tim Anderson, which seems to be carrying through the clubhouse,” White Sox vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer told me before the 2021 season.This led to Anderson receiving national advertising opportunities and plenty of local fame. But that came with a cost, he said, and the pressure affected him in different ways.“I worked my whole life to get there,” he said. “I never knew the route. I never know which turn. I never had no guidance. I just kept going. As you know, that was my saying, just keep going. I know I came to the ballpark every day ready to compete, ready to play for that logo that’s on the front of the jersey and that’s what I did. Nobody knows what I sacrificed and what the body felt every day.”