The phone rang in the middle of the night on May 7, 2016, rousing Tim Anderson from his hotel bed in Baltimore. On the other end was his friend and manager, Darrius Chapman, calling with news that would leave Anderson heartbroken and sobbing: Branden was dead.
Earlier that night, back in Anderson’s hometown of Tuscaloosa, Ala., Branden Moss had been shot and killed outside of a bar while trying to help a man who’d been beat up in a fight. Just like that, the White Sox’ young shortstop had lost his best friend since childhood. “We grew up together,” Anderson says of Moss.