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Tim Tebow was invited to spring training by the New York Mets for the second straight year. This time, though, comes with a twist: The 30-year-old quarterback will be with the big league camp. He just might get at-bats against real major leaguers.
I’m appalled and making popcorn at the same time. This is going to be so horripelling.
Start with what an invite to big league camp really means. It’s a chance to show off in front of the people who will decide your professional fate. Leaving a strong impression in the spring is a great way to sneak onto the 40-man roster when there’s a need in the middle of the season.
Tebow, a 30-year-old player who has a defensive ceiling as a bad corner outfielder, hit .226/.309/.347 against teenagers and 21-year-olds, which would suggest that there are, oh, about 100 to 200 players with a better argument for an invitation.
It would appear that some of these players have noticed:
I cannot tell you how many minor league players have told me how disgusted they are in regards to the opportunity the Mets have handed to Tim Tebow. Feel as though they have had to grind and work hard their whole life to get a sniff. Some will never get a big league camp invite.
— Matt Kardos (@mattkardos) January 19, 2018
But it’s a new year, and it’s been months since we’ve had fresh Tebow content. So let’s break out the greatest hits:
- Yes, it’s still impressive that Tebow could even hit that well, considering he spent most of his 20s playing not-baseball.
- No, I couldn’t hit or run or catch or throw as well as Tim Tebow.
- Yes, he’s better looking than me.
- With a heinie that really doesn’t quit.
- He sells tickets.
- He’s better than me at lots of things.
- Please don’t email me with your opinions about Tebow. I have a filter set up to send them straight to the trash.
- Where they will join the baseball abilities of Tebow.
- Ha ha, just a little humor, folks, but seriously, please don’t email me.
What this is, though, is a precursor to a logical conclusion. There is absolutely no way that Tebow leaves professional baseball without a cup of coffee in the majors. The only thing standing in his way is health, and there are no concerns there. The shirsey sales alone would justify it, and the additional revenue would allow the Mets to not pursue even more free agents, so they would be fools not to do it. We know that attendance spikes in the minors when Tebow rolls through town, so why not the majors?
Why not big league camp? They sell tickets there, too. And shirseys. It’s not like baseball is so pure that it’s never fiddled with publicity stunts. Pretty sure Minnie Miñoso wasn’t one of the best 650 players in baseball in 1980, when he got two at-bats and played in his fifth decade. Jim Morris wasn’t one of the best 750 players in baseball in 1999, but there was a good story and a movie to sell.
And so it will be that Tebow will be in big league camp this spring and on a big league roster this September, probably. He’ll deserve it because of the financial boost he will provide to Metropolitans Baseball Club Inc., and he won’t deserve it because he’s better at baseball than his peers.
His starving, young, work-at-Home-Depot-in-the-winter-ass peers.
This has been the latest installment of Tim Tebow Watch Watch. It will not be the last.