April 12, 2017,  Baseball  No comments

Yes, the headline may sound ridiculous because Tebow was not anywhere near as dominant as Bo Jackson was in the NFL. Another point is that he is not currently playing both sports. But, when was the last time people were this excited for a two-sport athlete other than Bo or “Primetime”?

Tebow is arguably the greatest college quarterback of all-time and had a brief and somewhat successful career in the NFL. After he led the Broncos to an overtime upset of the Steelers in the 2011 wild card game, he did not do much. After bouncing around the league with the Jets and Patriots, he decided to take on broadcasting for a while with the SEC network. After a few seasons, the natural born athlete craved for another chance in professional sports. He did not see a future in the NFL so why not try baseball?

Tebow was a solid baseball player in high school earning all-state honors as a junior while hitting .494 with 4 homers and 30 RBI and making it to the final four (http://usatodayhss.com/2016/how-good-was-tim-tebow-as-a-high-school-baseball-player).

MLB teams thought about drafting him out of high school but were nervous because it was clear he wanted to focus mainly on football.

When he announced that he wanted to play professional baseball, the sports world went into a frenzy. His workout had representatives from all 30 MLB teams. He showed glimpses of talent but could not be that impressive as a high school star attempting to play professional baseball some 10 years later. The New York Mets decided to take a risk on him either to give him a shot at what could be something great or possibly just a PR stunt to increase minor league ticket sales.

After playing in the fall and blowing everyone away by homering in his first at-bat, he later earned a spot with the Mets single A affiliate the Columbia Fireflies. Once again, he goes yard in his first at-bat and hits a second homerun in the team’s third game. He is now 4-17 with 5 RBI in 4 games. The funny thing is that perhaps the most well-known Christian athlete hit his first homerun off a pitcher drafted 666^th overall (666 being thought of as a symbol for Satan).

The swing isn’t perfect but that clearly doesn’t matter. Remember Kevin Youkilis? The guy learned to hit a baseball by chopping wood and doing what we were all taught not to do: chop at the ball. I am pulling for Tebow because why not? All the guy wants to do is carry out a lifelong dream. He’s been successful in the past and he honestly has nothing to lose. He is already a multi-millionaire and playing for almost the minimum so money is not a factor in his decision. We will see in the coming weeks if Tebow truly has what it takes to make it in the minors and maybe work his way all the way up to the bigs. All I can say is, good luck Tebow.