First Call: A former Steeler retires; is Ben Roethlisberger tipping off plays before the snap?

Monday’s “First Call” gives us news of a former Steeler retiring. We examine the details of Ben Roethlisberger allegedly tipping plays pre-snap.

Pirates All-Star Adam Frazier is in pretty exclusive company. Ex-Pirates pitchers in the Bronx are finding a better rhythm.

And we had some sassy tempers in a Pirates minor league game.

Chickillo checks out

A former Steeler is hanging up his cleats. Anthony Chickillo announced via Instagram that he is retiring.

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A post shared by Anthony Chickillo (@a_chickillo)

The free-agent linebacker spent his first five seasons in Pittsburgh. He appeared in 11 games for the Broncos last year following a stint on the Saints practice squad. The 28-year-old tallied 108 tackles and 8.5 sacks in his pro career.

A sixth-rounder, Chickillo was selected by the Steelers in the 2015 NFL draft out of the University of Miami. Chickillo was most often used as a backup at both outside linebacker positions and was a regular on special teams.

Chickillo’s most productive season came in 2016 when he got 2.5 sacks and forced two fumbles, while totaling 29 tackles (eight for a loss). He added three sacks in 2017.

What’s ‘the tell’ telling us?

On Friday, a TikTok user named @theoashnfl posted a video claiming that Ben Roethlisberger has “a tell” that tips off whether the Steelers are going to run or pass out of the shotgun.

The theory is that whenever Roethlisberger’s left foot is raised off its heel, the play is going to be a pass. And when he is flat-footed, the play is going to be a run.

SteelersDepot.com picked up on the story and did a full study of the whole season. They claim the tip holds water 95% of the time on shotgun run plays and almost 90% on passes. Also, the website claims that when the variance occurs and the tell fails, the plays were often jet sweeps, shovel passes and screen plays — i.e., non-conventional stuff.

When Mason Rudolph was studied, he had a similar tip on pass plays, but not so much on runs.

So how impactful is all of this? Is this footwork tick from Roethlisberger part of what Washington’s defensive players were talking about when they claimed “Baltimore exposed some things” during the Steelers’ last win of their 11-0 start in 2020?

I guess it’s possible. But let’s be honest, the Steelers threw so much last year, the defense could’ve just guessed “pass” every down — regardless of formation — and would’ve been right 64% of the time. Also, as Steelers Depot points out, the lifted foot often occurs close enough to the snap that it may not give defenders time to notice anyway.

It’s probably something Roethlisberger should note, but I think it’s less about the foot lift and more about how he is standing in a more rigid, upright posture on the run plays, when he knows he’s not going to throw.

Maybe the biggest takeaway from all of this is we have yet another argument for the Steelers to incorporate more snaps — specifically more runs — from under center.

Add Adam to the list

Adam Frazier is joining an elite list of Pirates.

The second baseman is going into the All-Star break with 115 hits. That’s good enough to lead Major League Baseball at its unofficial halfway point.

As AT&T SportsNet pointed out during Sunday’s broadcast, Frazier is only the fifth Pirate to lead MLB in hits at the break. And he’s the first since Matty Alou did it in 1969 with 146 hits.

The first three on the list were Paul Waner with 106 in 1937, Dick Groat in 1960 with 110 and Donn Clendenon with 107 in 1965.

As far as most hits by a Pirate at the break, Frazier ranks pretty high on that list, too.

Most hits by a Pirate before the All-Star Break:

Matty Alou, 1969 - 146
Dave Parker, 1977 - 124
Jack Wilson, 2004 - 118
Adam Frazier, 2021 - 115
Andrew McCutchen, 2014 - 115
Dick Groat, 1962 - 115

(via @StatsBySTATS)

— Joe Block (@joe_block) July 11, 2021

Frazier and Bryan Reynolds are representing the Pirates at the All-Star game in Denver Tuesday night.

Back-to-back ex-Buccos

Former Pirate Gerrit Cole was the talk of baseball Saturday night for his 129-pitch, complete-game shutout.

And for telling manager Aaron Boone that he wasn’t allowed to remove him from the game in the ninth inning.

A true competitor

Gerrit Cole refused to come out of the game when Aaron Boone visited the mound in the 9th pic.twitter.com/brqZbEEBCc

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 11, 2021

The Yankees won that contest 1-0 behind Cole’s 12 strikeouts.

Then, on Sunday, another former Pirate, Jameson Taillon, took the mound for the Bronx Bombers. He pitched six innings against the Astros, yielding just two runs on two solo homers.

Despite the solid start, Taillon’s ERA is still at 4.90. That said, the right-hander appears to be finding a groove.

Jameson Taillon last four starts:

24.2 IP
21 H
9 ER
6 BB
23 K
3.28 ERA

— New York Yankees Stats (@nyyankeesstats) July 11, 2021

Houston spoiled the win for Taillon, though. The Astros rallied from 7-2 down to win 8-7 courtesy of six runs in the ninth inning. Second baseman Jose Altuve hit a walk-off home run to clinch it.

We heard it was cold, so we turned it up a notch.#ForTheH pic.twitter.com/tcC5xcRcRc

— Houston Astros (@astros) July 11, 2021

Oh, wait. So Altuve is OK with his shirt coming off now? Go figure.

Bradenton bench-clear

Things got a little spicy between the Pirates’ Low-A team in Bradenton Saturday. The Marauders were playing the Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia Phillies), and a bench-clearing incident took place.

Marauders pitcher Jared Jones hit Threshers batter Rixon Wingrove in the leg. In the top of the seventh inning, Wingrove charged the mound and the benches cleared (note, there is an expletive in the tweet which shows the video).

It appears no punches were thrown. Jones backed off from Wingrove to avoid the altercation. Wingrove is 6-foot-5, 260 pounds. Jones is 6-foot-1, 180 pounds.

Pirates starter Steven Brault tossed one and two-thirds scoreless innings for the Marauders, throwing 39 pitches and striking out three. He’s on a rehab stint in Bradenton.

Both Wingrove and Jones were ejected. The game was suspended at 4-4 in the ninth inning due to lightning. A resumption date for the suspended game will be announced later.