Is Pirates Jose Tabata Like Steelers Mike Tomlin?
The Steelers have made their own NFL records and have had NFL records broken at their own expense.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have never had a perfect game thrown against them in their 129 year existence. That almost came to an end on Saturday when Max Sherzer was one out away from throwing Major League Baseball’s 24th perfect game.
Instead of throwing a rare and difficult feat, Sherzer hit Pirates Jose Tabata with a slider that as Sherzer accounts got away from him and backed up into Tabata. No perfect game, but still got the no hitter after Josh Harrison flew out to left field.
Roll out the controversy.
Funny how unwritten rules don’t get mentioned until… well… they are violated. Nationals fans, some players, and (shocker!) ESPN analysts are up in arms following Tabata’s HBP 1st base pass. From their perspective, Tabata leaned in (a stretch in my opinion).
At the very least they all feel that he should have made the extra effort to get out of the way.
Really?
After hearing the nonsense (and then some sense), I couldn’t help but think of a similar situation. Ok, that might be a stretch, but still, I couldn’t help but chuckle that this some how relates to Steelers Mike Tomlin ‘breaking up’ Ravens Jacoby Jones’ chance at returning a kickoff for a touchdown.
You all remember this right?
Returning kicks and punts back for touchdowns are hard to achieve. Not nearly as hard as a perfect game or a no hitter, but they are probably the most difficult thing to achieve statistically in a football game. Everything has to be just right for a return man to find the gaps and holes.
Jones did that right up until he ran past Tomlin, who just so happened to stick out his foot past the sidelines followed by jumping out of the way.
Jose Tabata had every right to do what he did. Stay in the batter’s box and take the hit. That space inside the box is his. It’s his to defend. It’s what he is paid to do. The Max Sherzer slider went into his area, and he took the pitch to the elbow. Hey, anyone ever think that he leaned down a little to make sure it hit him on the elbow guard and not an unprotected spot on his arm?
(Nah, why would he do that?)
Unlike Tabata, Tomlin did not stay within his area as Jones ran past. Tomlin was in clear violation of being on the field when he shouldn’t have. He took his licks, and a fine from the NFL despite saying he had no intentions of interfering with Jones.
Nonetheless, Tomlin aided in breaking up a kick return that was sure to end in six points.
I guess that’s the only way those two are related – they both broke up something that’s difficult to achieve. One of them did it fairly. The other… well… let’s just say that the next time he faced the Ravens, he made sure he was well out of the way.
Congrats to Sherzer for throwing the no hitter. An pity to the folks who think that Tabata broke some unwritten rule by not aiding him in achieving more.
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