Being incredibly handsome and having a cushy studio gig apparently isn’t enough for Tim Tebow. At around 7:05 am EST today, Adam Schefter broke the news to Mike & Mike that Tebow would be trying his hand at baseball.
For the past 9 months Tim Tebow has been attempting to hone his baseball skills in preparation for a new career chapter. And in order to do so, the former Heisman trophy winner is stepping back into the batter’s box for the first time in over a decade.
Tebow has been working on his outfield play for the better part of a year now and will soon invite representatives from every Major League team to come view his progress later this month.
29 year-old Tebow (he’s 2 years younger than Michael Jordan was when he tried to make the jump to baseball) will continue his duties at ESPN in the meantime. Which is probably a smart move since my first instinct is to say this definitely will not end how the former Broncos, Jets, Eagles and Patriots quarterback envisions.
However, if I’m an MLB team I sign Tim Tebow the exact moment he shows he can semi-competently throw a ball and swing a bat. Running him through the minor league baseball gauntlet would create a rare buzz for an MLB team’s affiliates. Even if he never becomes a regular in the Majors (which is extremely doubtful), Tebow could create a real interest in every small town he takes an at-bat in and who knows, maybe he could surprise a few people.
Apparently it’s not all crazy talk as Tebow was at one point an MLB prospect… I’ll use that term loosely… Here are few excerpts on Tebow’s baseball prowess from an SB Nation piece from 2013:
Kotchman, a Red Sox Florida area scout (who previously worked in the Angelsorganization and has been inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame), has his own memories when it comes to Tim Tebow, and they have little to do with football.
“We wanted to draft him,” Kotchman remembered, “but he never sent back his information card. Either it never got to him, or … It’s Tim Tebow. Who knows if it got to him, and if it did we just never got it back. Otherwise were [sic] were going to take him.”
As a high school junior, the left fielder hit .494 with four home runs while leading his team to the final four of the state playoffs. He didn’t play as a senior, instead enrolling at Florida during the spring in an effort to jump-start his football career.
“He had a strong arm and had a lot of power. If he would have been there his senior year he definitely would have had a good chance to be drafted,” said Red Sox Florida scout Stephen Hargett, who worked with Kotchman with the Angels. “He had leverage to his swing. He had some natural loft. He had some good power. He was a good athlete. He had had enough arm for that position. He was a left-handed hitter with strength and some size.
So, what the hell, what’s Tebow got to lose? Worst case scenario he probably makes a little sleepy minor league baseball town the most exciting it has ever been.
The most important part of that is that we should thank God and all things good and holy that Skip Bayless is no longer at ESPN because we would be hearing about how Tebow is the next Bo Jackson non stop for the next month straight.