As you may have heard, former Gators star turned baseball player Tim Tebow finally broke into a Major League lineup today. OK, so it was a Grapefruit League spring training game, but still: it was the latest episode of a reality show called TebowMania that nobody can get enough of. Including myself.
That means it’s worth breaking down for archival purposes, so here’s an at-bat by at-bat recap of Tebow’s day against the Boston Red Soxk:
At bat #1:
The home plate umpire split a pair of bad calls in this at bat. First, a pitch that seemingly caught the inside corner was called a ball, and then a 1-2 pitch that was way off the plate (and probably an inch or two low as well) was called strike three. In between, Tebow took a huge cut and missed. Not the best showing by either Tebow nor the ump.
At bat #2:
Things got better for Tebow in this at bat, sort of. With the Mets down 4-3, the bases loaded and no outs, Tebow hit a hard grounder right to the waiting second baseman, resulting in an easy double play. The good news is that the runner on third did score, which means that Tebow drove in the tying run. Because he hit into a double play, however, Tebow did not get credited with an RBI. It’s also worth noting that if Tebow hit the same ball ten feet to the right, it’s a run scoring single and he’s praised to the moon for it. He got solid bat on ball contact, but wasn’t lucky enough to find a hole.
At bat #3:
Tebow got drilled on the shoulder by a wild pitch from Brian Johnson, who starred for the Gators in his own way as both a pitcher and a power hitter from 2010-2012. He wound up getting doubled off as the next batter lined out to second, a move that was due to him straying a little too far off the base as well as him not sliding into first base.
At bat #4:
This was definitely the worst Tebow looked all day. Tebow took three straight pitches from Boston reliever Brandon Workman, all strikes, getting called out on a breaking ball on the corner.
Overall: not the best day for Tebow, although he did drive in one of the Mets’ eight runs in their 8-7 victory. However, one day won’t make or break his career, so it’s worth holding off on the doubts for now.
