Tim Tebow Wants to Play Major League Baseball Now

Tim Tebow is trying to make another comeback. This time, in baseball, more than a decade after he gave it up to focus on football. Tebow, who turns 29 next week, has been training to play baseball for the last year according to Adam Schefter. Apparently, ESPN’s SEC Network and Fox’s “Home Free” aren’t satisfying his competitive needs.

This seems like a random story, but Tebow did play baseball, as most quarterbacks did, way back in high school. He gave up the sport in 2005. The Angels wanted to draft Tebow during his home school / high school days, but he never returned his information card. Via a 2013 article on WEEI:

"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. ‘€œHe 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. ‘€œHe 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. ‘€œHe stood out. Right when you walked up to the field, he passed the body test. He was bigger and stronger than everybody. I think of how big he is, with an average junior or senior in high school being 5-foor-10, 160 pounds. This guy is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds. ‘€¦ It was just easy for him. You thought, if this guy dedicated everything to baseball like he did to football how good could he be?’€"

A fine question. The answer would have at least been performance-based. In 2011, Tim Kurkjian made a case for Tebow as a baseball player. Via ESPN:

"All that is supposedly wrong with Tebow is what is right about baseball. The game of baseball allows its players to throw a ball, catch a ball, swing a bat and run whatever way they like, no matter how unconventional, inartistic or ridiculous it might be or look, as long as it works."

Like most Tim Tebow rumors, nothing will probably come from this. Though I’m sure there are plenty of minor league teams that would love to give Tebow a shot for the attendance bump. And we know that Tebow is in shape. For the only comparison that kind of makes sense, Michael Jordan played double-A when he was 31-years old.