Quick Hits

CAL U on Letterman? Cal U on Letterman. [YouTube]

RB JAMEEL POTEAT looks like he's headed to Pitt, yet another nice score for the Wannstache. [Kristian Dyer/Fox Sports Twitter]

AMALIA TABATA-PEREIRA, the 44-year-old estranged wife of Jose Tabata, pled guilty on Wednesday on charges of kidnapping, interference with custody and impersonating a public officer. [Chron.com]

ZACH DUKE (3-9, 5.38) and Randy Wolf (7-8, 4.56) battle at PNC Park tonight as the Brewers try to avenge an 11-9 loss last night. 

Pedro Alvarez hit two home runs (including a grand slam) and Neil Walker added five hits for the Buccos. Brad Lincoln allowed nine hits and seven earned runs in 2 1/3 innings, nearly blowing a 9-0 first inning lead. [PG]

The JEROME BETTIS Asthma Sports Camp is underway at Heinz Field. [WPXI]


TIGER WOODS leads this year's SI Fortunate 50 list of America's richest athletes in 2009, earning over $90 million. No Pittsburgh athletes made the list, which included such names as Tracy McGrady, Darius Heyward-Bey, and Michael Redd. [SI.com]

TODAY'S HEADLINES

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in action tonight, with a home contest against the Lightning at 7:30. Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar are both officially listed as day-to-day with their respective ailments. Win or lose, Kris Letang is treating everyone to ice cream after the game. [PittsburghPenguins.com]

Jamie Dixon has already privately passed on the Oregon job, according to Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. But after yesterday, I'm not proclaiming anything official in the field of Dixon rumors. [CBSSports.com]

TABATA: "WHAT WOULD CLEMENTE DO?"

That's the question Jose Tabata is asking himself in a statement just released concerning his kidnapping, 43-year-old wife, who uses multiple identities. How Roberto's name gets brought into this mess is beyond me, but here's a snippet of what Tabata had to say:

“What I do know is that I am a Pittsburgh Pirate and my life-long idol is Roberto Clemente. And because of that, when presented with this difficult situation, I asked myself “what would Clemente do in this situation?” I know Clemente was a man known for his decency, responsibility, doing what he says, and always doing the correct thing. And I believe the only correct thing in this moment is to tell the truth."

Yeah, I'm going to go on out an limb and say that Roberto Clemente probably didn't get married in a Florida check-cashing joint. To a woman 23 years older than him. When he was 19. But other than that, yes, I'm sure Clemente would've totally done the right thing.

So back we come to "What Would Clemente Do?" To me, this could finally be the great Pirates marketing slogan for 2009. It sums up the franchise so nicely for so many different reasons. And sure, it's already been done by another team's fanbase in this town, but that season seemed to work out pretty good, no?

Tabata Issues a Statement [KDKA/PSI]

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JOSE TABATA WAS MARRIED AT A CHECK-CASHING PLACE

Finally, some details about the bizarro case of Jose Tabata's wife, 43-year-old Amalia Tabata Pereira (shown above), kidnapping a 2-month-old kid are starting to trickle out. Chuck Finder had a great article in the PG about the case today, uncovering numerous facts, such as:

--The couple being wed in January 2008 at a check-cashing and tax outlet called Amscot.
--Her bail is set at $750,000.
--Tabata is not a suspect.
--Tabata's wife "spent two years and nine months in a Florida state prison stemming from a 1999 incident in which she was accused of stealing $20,000 from a Paycheck Advance where she worked in the Temple Terrace neighborhood north of Tampa, then staging a fire at the business to conceal the theft."
--"She had so many aliases, it's kind of tough to check," said Plant City sheriffs department spokesman Dave Bristow.

Lots of sites have predictably had fun with this (personally, I recommend Sports Pickle's "Tabata Timeline"), and some have joked that this was an elaborate stunt to get the Pirates back in the national news. But in all seriousness, let's recap the top "national" Pirate stories of 2009: we've got Rinku and Dinesh, the quest for a record 17th consecutive losing season, and now this. Oh well. It's still not as bad as A-Rod's offseason.

Police trying to decipher curious case of Tabata's wife [Chuck Finder/PG]

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