October 09, 2017
During the Philadelphia Eagles' blowout of the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Carson Wentz connected on a 59-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Torrey Smith.
In the end zone after the score, Smith mimicked hitting a home run, as I'm sure you all saw on Sunday.
Best NFL GIF this year. pic.twitter.com/ixDtSSTFhN
— Joe Giglio (@JoeGiglioSports) October 8, 2017
This entire TD celebration made no sense, for the following reasons:
• First, Nelson Agholor, the pitcher in this scenario, has perhaps the worst throwing motion I've ever seen. But beyond that, he doesn't even release the imaginary ball. He keeps his fist closed the entire time. This should have been a balk, at least if there were any imaginary runners on base.
• It appears that Carson Wentz, LeGarrette Blount, and Zach Ertz are all home plate umpires here. Why are there three?
• Ertz, who has legitimate baseball skills, and should know the game, is for some reason in the lefty batter's box. If an umpire positioned himself there, he'd be dead within a season from all the foul balls (and possibly even the bats) that he'd get hit by.
• The umpires' reaction to the home run is wholly inappropriate. It's like they turned into Frank Drebin:
• Even worse, why would Jeffery, the catcher here, be celebrating the home run? Like, did he purposely tell the batter what pitch was coming so that he could hit the dinger, like in Bull Durham?
But even then, why would Jeffery show up his own pitcher by shading his eyes to watch it leave the park? And why would he be running back to the dugout, when the inning would continue, since it wasn't an out? Maybe, in theory, it was an imaginary walk-off home run, which would make sense for him going to the dugout. However, a walk-off homer wouldn't make sense within the context of the football game, since the TD happened in the first quarter.
After the game, Doug Pederson was asked about the home run celebration.
"I caught it late, so I think he hit a home run or something, didn't he," Pederson asked. "Good stuff."
Pederson not only didn't know that his players were conducting an entirely flawed TD celebration, but he seemed to think that it was good. This is unacceptable coaching, and Pederson should be fired.
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