A Sports Center update comes on a TV at a local bar. Two older gentlemen sit over a couple of mid-afternoon drinks to get away from the house and escape reality.
The update reads, “Tim Tebow has decided to pursue a professional baseball career.” The one looks over at the other and mutters, “Didn’t they get rid of this guy?”
The other says back, “I thought he was just a broadcaster.”
One sip of beer later and the first says, “This guy can’t be serious.”
Oh, gentlemen, he is very serious.
Tebow, the former Florida Gator and Denver Bronco, has decided that he wants to become a professional baseball player.
This is beyond fascinating for me. I am still surprised that not one NFL team has taken a shot at him at least as a back up.
What I find even more surprising is Tebow’s reluctance to change positions. I’m sure he would have made a fine halfback, tight end, or even middle linebacker.
Maybe he knows something about his game that we don’t know. I still can’t figure it out.
Many scoff at the idea of Tebow pursuing a dream to play baseball at the highest level. I like to think he has a legitimate shot to not only make a New York Mets minor league team out of spring training next year but could possibly become a serious prospect for the big team.
My prediction for Tebow: a good to average season at the lowest level of Minor League Baseball, low-A rookie league. This is a league designed for players who are high draft picks and usually coming out of high school and are not nearly developed in terms of their bodies or baseball knowledge.
Tebow has a leg up on all of these prospects with his 30-year-old middle linebacker-type of frame. He lacks the baseball knowledge and instinct that some of these top prospects possess. I can see the former Gator hitting about 15 home runs with a .230 average in his first season. Very respectable numbers for a guy who has not played the sport competitively since 2005.
If this prediction comes to fruition, he could develop into a talent like Jeff Bagwell, a player he greatly reminds me of. Many argue that Bagwell is a Hall-of-Fame player and Tebow will certainly not land in Cooperstown, but you know he’ll have some serious power. I mean, you don’t plow through defenses as a quarterback without some serious muscle.
If you haven’t seen his swing floating around on the internet already I suggest you take a gander. Clips are less than 10 seconds, but the swings are pure and the bat making contact with the ball have a similar sound of a Revolutionary War canon exploding into enemy lines.
I wholeheartedly believe that Tim Tebow was born to be a professional athlete. There is a drive that burns in his soul like an old steam engines furnace. A blazing fire that keeps him on his track toward a goal. There may be stops on the way but like a train he will stay on the rails and not tip off to one side or the other.
Then you have to take in a account a god-gifted body built for speed and power. You know how some people you can tell are born with that “gift.” I know many people who have been blessed with this ability of natural strength, incredible balance and an extra instinct to catch a ball.
I call it a “spider sense.” For you undercover comic book-loving sports fans.
Yes, Timmy is going to be a baseball player. I can say that with the fullest amount of confidence. I mean, come on, man, a homer in your first at-bat? On the first pitch too? Absurd.
But like those two gentlemen at the bar, you may think this endeavor is asinine, but in reality, it’s Tebow’s destiny. To be a professional athlete.
Mike Murphy is fourth-year student majoring in communication studies. He can be reached at MM802071@wcupa.edu.