MLB: Tim Tebow to Attempt to Play Baseball?!
Multiple sites are reporting today that Tim Tebow is looking to give life in the MLB a try. Is this real or a publicity stunt?
Multiple sources began reporting Tuesday morning that Tim Tebow was going to pursue a job as a baseball outfielder and would be holding a workout sometime in September for scouts. Tebow has been working with former MLB catcher Chad Moeller, and he’s been working with CAA’s Brodie Van Wagenen as an agent, and Van Wagenen had this quote from the MLB Trade Rumors article linked previously:
“This may sound like a publicity stunt, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have seen Tim’s workouts, and people inside and outside the industry – scouts, executives, players and fans – will be impressed by his talent.”
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However, Tebow is 29, and like Michael Jordan, who attempted to leave the NBA at 31 to become a baseball player, he could quickly find out just how difficult baseball truly is at the professional level, no matter the athlete he is.
Tebow is well-renowned for his athletic prowess, possibly more well-known for his physicality (especially that famous clip of him running in the rain in New York Jets training camp shirtless that was reportedly widely viewed on ESPN’s website, requiring the video to be re-loaded due to crashing the server it was initially loaded on) than his actual on field production in his chosen sport, football.
That all said, Tebow did once have some baseball chops, back in high school, as Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper mentioned on Twitter:
Tebow was a baseball draft prospect as a LHH OF in high school, but didn't play as a senior as he focused on football.
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) August 9, 2016
At 6’3″ and right around 240-250 pounds in his football career, Tebow would be incredibly large on the baseball field, so getting his swing in shape to catch a hard breaking pitch will be his biggest challenge, no matter his level of athleticism, but he’ll likely have a solid arm from the outfield and good speed for his size. He’ll have some leg up on many he’d come across, but we’ll see how the workout goes in a month!
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For those who enjoy Tim’s, ahem, features, here is the aforementioned video of his New York Jets training camp jog (in slow motion):