This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

I was talking with Tim Anderson in the visitors’ clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium about non-baseball-related interests for the All-Star White Sox shortstop when he grabbed his cell phone from the locker.

His excitement was palpable, although shown through Anderson’s low-key, matter-of-fact demeanor, as he scrolled through a number of group chats looking for images of present and future business interests. Anderson is a shrewd 29-year-old with a defined but clearly adaptable plan for the future.

Those plans will be divulged by Anderson when the time is right but suffice it to say, he doesn’t go into anything half-heartedly. 

“The idea starts as like a business,” Anderson told me. “If I’m going to do something, I’m going to go all in and try to make it the biggest. It has always been a business plan.

“It makes sense having the angles and thought process behind it and not just doing it. Doing it for a reason and having your target. How are you going to go about it? All the stuff has been talked about vs. jumping out and doing it. The things I do kind of make sense. They are pretty cool.”

We did get a chance to discuss two of Anderson’s passions: fashion and music. Good fashion for me is when my Superbad McLovin fake ID graphic tee matches my jeans, but for Anderson, that real fashion connection started well before he was able to use his Major League earnings to improve his selections.

“I put them on in high school,” Anderson said. “I’m just not getting dressed now. It’s getting better with the position I am in. I’m able to get more name-brand stuff. It’s really about matching. But you want to look good.

“Your clothes are a big image of yourself and how people see you and how people view you. If you are looking nice, then people will respect you because you care about yourself. You represent yourself in the right way. You’re looking good, smelling good. That plays a huge role into image.”

Anderson has his own brand, TA7, but hasn’t dropped any merchandise. He’s changing the angles because he wants to make it more fashionable for fans to feel like him when wearing something he created and not just a logo on shirts. 

As for music, some of Anderson’s inner circle already are making it.

“I got a little brother that raps so it’s kind of already starting and rolling,” Anderson said. “Nothing has been stamped and labeled but it’s a lot of cool ideas and a lot of things I’m doing behind the scenes I don’t share but I just work on.

“If they get big, then the world will see. If not, then just having fun. It’s a hobby but it’s also allowing people, helping people to better their chances to get in a better position for life. Just an opportunity.”