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Jose Bautista and Richard Sherman debate football vs baseball on Twitter

By Kyle Franzoni

Jun 2, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman (25, right) poses for a photo with Seattle Mariners right fielder Nelson Cruz (23) following the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 2, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman (25, right) poses for a photo with Seattle Mariners right fielder Nelson Cruz (23) following the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Richard Sherman ignited the whole football versus baseball debate again on Twitter, and Jose Bautista came to bat for America’s Pastime.

George Carlin may have famously stepped up and put baseball in its place in the eternal argument over which sport is tops; football or baseball. However, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista may have added a point into the win column for America’s Pastime.

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Seattle Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman got the proverbial ball rolling on Friday afternoon when he asserted on Twitter that “NO athlete has to be more mentally prepared than football players.”

Now, there’s no telling what prompted said remark from Sherman, and there does not appear any indication as to his inspiration anywhere else on his Twitter feed. However, the comment didn’t necessarily sit well with others, especially the aforementioned Bautista, who was quick to retort.

Of course, Bautista is referring to the time a batter has to react to each pitch. According to the excellent match of user “whitesox09” on Yahoo Answers, Bautista isn’t far off. A hitter has roughly .434 of a second to decide whether a 95 MPH fastball is going to be a strike and to determine where it is going to be in order to put a good swing on it. Accordingly, that time is reduced a bit because the hitter also needs to determine what kind of pitch he’s seeing.

Of course, baseball has also made tremendous strides in the use of technology, advanced scouting reports, and other metrics to help prepare players both before and during games. It isn’t unheard of to see a player head into the tunnel after an at-bat to review the pitch sequence he just saw in order to exploit a flaw. Similarly, pitchers will review hitter’s strengths and weaknesses in order to best determine how to attack them in each at-bat.

That all said, I’m not sure Sherman was really discussing mental preparation or toughness. I know personally I’d feel more comfortable sitting in a batter’s box with the thought of a 95 MPH fastball coming at me than I would running a crossing pattern into linebacker territory.

But hey, if we want to chalk up a winner to this particular argument, let’s let the numbers decide it. Sherman appealed to his Tweeps to back him up and garnered 1,531 retweets from his 1.37 million followers. Meanwhile, Jose Bautista, who may trail Sherman in followers with just 692k of his own, knows a thing or two about campaigning on social media (he follows everyone). Bautista’s retort drew 11,235 retweets in response, blowing Sherman’s tweet out of the water.

I think it’s safe to say that we can chalk this one up as a victory for baseball!

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