{"id":325,"date":"2016-09-09T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T17:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=325"},"modified":"2016-09-09T15:14:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T19:14:59","slug":"tim-tebow-no-place-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2016\/09\/09\/tim-tebow-no-place-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Tebow Has No Place in Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I read that the <strong>New York Mets<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2016\/09\/08\/new-york-mets-sign-tim-tebow\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signed <strong>Tim Tebow<\/strong><\/a> to a minor-league deal, I chuckled a bit. My first thought was, &#8220;this is really happening, I guess.&#8221; Aside from the mild laughter that ensued, the realization of the message that was being sent to minor league baseball players around the country began to sink in: The skills that they&#8217;ve worked their entire lives to master mean nothing so long as a famous, athletic person can look the part and sell more tickets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong> pitcher <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodal02.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Wood<\/a><\/strong> summed up what I can imagine is a common feeling around affiliated baseball with one tweet.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Food for thought. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/escth3F5jk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/escth3F5jk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Wood (@Awood45) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Awood45\/status\/774000811525406720\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 8, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTebow signing a minor league deal for 100k is like your boss giving his son\/daughter who has a high school education &amp; hasn\u2019t worked in 10 years the promotion that you were supposed to get. #America,\u201d Wood said in the tweet.<\/p>\n<h2>Tim Tebow Has No Place in Baseball<\/h2>\n<p>I had to rub my eyes several times after reading it, but the former Florida Gator\u2019s contract does include a $100,000 signing bonus. Now that number seems microscopic when <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnske05.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kelly Johnson<\/a><\/strong> is making $1.5 million in 2016, but the signing bonus is irrelevant from the Mets\u2019 perspective. That amount of money is a drop in the can for any big league franchise, even Brad Pitt\u2019s <strong>Oakland Athletics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s about what the money says (I&#8217;m done with the\u00a0<strong><em>Moneyball<\/em> <\/strong>references, I promise). The amount of players in the Mets organization that have give years of blood, sweat and tears to the game of baseball that are making about $1,000 a month while a celebrity just decides he wants to play baseball and gets a $100,000 for signing a contract. Let\u2019s be honest, that\u2019s what Tebow is at this point \u2013 a celebrity. He didn\u2019t earn that signing bonus for his talents like other players, even \u201cbonus babies\u201d; it was a gift from the Mets because he\u2019s famous.<\/p>\n<p>But hey, if the Mets and <strong>GM Sandy Alderson<\/strong> want to blow a few advertising dollars to double the media presence in spring training and sell a few more jerseys, so be it. They are well within their rights to do so. Just don\u2019t give a response like this:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was not something that was driven by marketing considerations or anything of the sort,\u201d Alderson <a href=\"http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/B\/BBN_METS_TEBOW?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cWe are extremely intrigued with the potential that Tim has. He has demonstrated over his athletic career that he is a tremendous athlete, has great character, a competitive spirit. And aside from the age, this is a classic player development opportunity for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Baltimore Orioles<\/strong>\u00a0skipper <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/showabu99.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buck Showalter<\/a><\/strong> was among a few that showed some displeasure at the early stages of this sideshow. Several players made jokes about Tebow\u2019s apparent transition to baseball (<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jonesad01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Jones<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SimplyAJ10\/status\/763063936614707204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was on fire with his<\/a>), but Showalter&#8217;s response shows why this move devalues what players go through to sign professional contracts and keep jobs throughout a career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAm I intrigued? No, not at all. Amused? No, not at all. I think about what these guys do in our <strong>Dominican Academy<\/strong> and <strong>Delmarva<\/strong> and <strong>Aberdeen<\/strong> and the <strong>Gulf Coast League<\/strong> and <strong>Frederick<\/strong> and <strong>Bowie<\/strong> and <strong>Norfolk<\/strong>, I take very seriously the stuff they have to do to get the opportunities and do what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Showalter <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/buck-showalter-isnt-amused-by-tim-tebows-interest-in-baseball-215823257.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told NBC Sports in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That quote swiftly leads me to my final point. I\u2019ll admit that even I thought throughout this whole process that if he came across sincerely and really wanted to give this a shot, what the heck? Why not? That was until I read that he will be able to take days off during instructional league play this fall to remain at <strong>ESPN<\/strong> as a college football analyst. That piece of information blatantly answered every question I had about this whole process.<\/p>\n<p>He may be an elite athlete. He may be a <strong>Heisman Trophy<\/strong> recipient and national champion. But if he cannot be sincere enough to devote 100 percent of his time to baseball, he has no place in the game&#8230; and shame on the Mets for giving him one.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: 10px 0; max-width: 550px;\"><a id=\"ld-294-9705\" href=\"http:\/\/lockerdome.com\/6169841350483521\/8915352855935768\" data-width=\"100%\" data-height=\"auto\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Which of the following was the best moment of the first half:<\/a><span id=\"ld-294-9705-equiv\"> in <a href=\"http:\/\/lockerdome.com\/6169841350483521\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LastWordOnSports&#8217;s Hangs<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/lockerdome.com\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LockerDome<\/a><\/span><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d,s,id,elid) {window.ldInit = window.ldInit || []; ldInit.push(elid);if (d.getElementById(id)) return;var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];js=d.createElement(s); js.id=id;js.async=true;js.src=\"\/\/cdn2.lockerdome.com\/_js\/embed.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document, \"script\", \"lockerdome-wjs\", \"ld-294-9705\"));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/503035466\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/503035466?et=Nc4h_wYbRC1_kJChAxbnuA&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=nTzI3Elw-wTZeS6EaGT0YTPX6NkhED6ts8ymifz6GnQ=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I read that the New York Mets signed Tim Tebow to a minor-league deal, I chuckled a bit. My first thought was, &#8220;this is really happening, I guess.&#8221; Aside from the mild laughter that ensued, the realization of the message that was being sent to minor league baseball players around the country began to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1586,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[204,68,69,164,39],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-featured","tag-alex-wood","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-tim-tebow"],"modified_by":"Josh Greenberg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1586"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}