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Title: Commentary: Tim Tebow's baseball success is no joke
Source:
Orlando Sentinel
URL Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opin ... -david-whitley-0627-story.html
Published: Jun 27, 2018
Author: David Whitley
Post Date: 2018-06-28 11:36:44 by Deckard
Ping List: *Baseball* Subscribe to *Baseball*
Keywords: None
Views: 5808
Comments: 74
Remember all the snickering, guffawing and ridicule over Tim Tebow becoming a baseball player? Guess what, jokers? It seems Tebow is actually becoming a baseball player. “He looks like a different guy than last year,” Hartford manager Warren Schaeffer to the New York Post. That’s the paper that once ran the headline “Headless Body In Topless Bar.” Now critics must be losing their heads over the headline “Tim Tebow suddenly looking like pro baseball player.” Tebow plays for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, the Mets’ affiliate in the Class AA Eastern League. The Post surveyed opposing managers to get a gauge on Tebow’s progress. Tebow has not been sensational, but his progress has been impressive. “I saw him last year at (Class A) Columbia. He’s come a really long way,” Schaeffer said. “He’s a tough out right now. We had a really tough time against Tim Tebow. He hits fastballs well. He’s a strong kid. His approach has gotten a lot better.” Tebow was batting .256 with five home runs and 27 RBIs heading into this week. But his OPS (a statistic that measures on-base percentage and slugging average) was .737. That’s 81 points higher than last year, and the statistics keep trending up. Tebow had reached base in 11 of 15 games and batted .315 in that stretch. “We’ve got guys who’ve been playing five, six, seven years not having the success he’s had at Double-A,” Harrisburg manager Matt LeCroy said. “A lot of people probably thought he could not do that and now he’s starting to thrive in Double-A.” A lot of people? The precise number might be everyone on the planet except Tebow. Even his biggest admirers probably feared his baseball excursion would fizzle out in the low minors. Tebow hadn’t played baseball since 2006, his junior year at Nease High School. In between, he helped Florida with two national football championships, won the Heisman Trophy, led the Denver Broncos to the playoffs, built a hospital in the Philippines, became a hero to millions with his Good Guy persona, became an irritant to millions with his Good Guy persona…. On and on it went until he was (choose one) blackballed out the NFL or mercifully released after proving he’d never be a fulltime quality quarterback. Whatever your choice, there’s no debating what baseball experts thought when Tebow showed up at the Arizona Fall League in 2016. “His presence here is a farce, and he looks like an impostor pretending to have talent he does not possess,” ESPN’s baseball insider wrote. “There’s no hope this thing turns around,” Fox Sports wrote. “Scouts - given no choice but to evaluate this out-of-place media member - have been turning in scathing reports about Tebow’s long swing, poor fielding, and bad pitch recognition.” So what do scouts say now? “He is better,” one told the Post. “He has shown the ability to hit the fastball. Not a double-plus fastball, but an average fastball. He has progressed. He still misses a lot of pitches down. The changeup, he doesn’t see at all.’’ So he’s not Mike Trout, but apparently there is more than a little hope he is turning this thing around. “To hold your own after being out of it for however long he had been, you got to give the guy credit,” New Hampshire manager John Schneider said. “Baseball is a hard thing and hitting is a really hard thing. To show improvement and hold his own here in Double-A is pretty impressive.” Those suffering Tebow Derangement Syndrome will next declare him a failure if he doesn’t make it to the Majors. But Tebow never judged success that way. His only goal was to see how good he could be and enjoy the journey. It’s amazing what a tireless work ethic, unwavering faith and not listening to critics can do. “I’m improving, seeing pitches, leaving some bad pitches,” Tebow told the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. “I’m trying to be more direct to the baseball to do more damage with it.” If he keeps improving, the real damage will be to the egos of all those who weren’t just (understandably) skeptical of Tebow’s chances, they were laughing at the thought he’d ever amount to more than baseball joke. Who’s laughing now?
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 43.
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
Good story... LOVE Tim Tebow. I'm hardly alone. My all time favorite afflete. And Top Ten people. The man defines love of fellow man, integrity, willing oneself to be the best you can be. What kind of person wishes him ill-will and failure?
What do you expect he's wearing a Barney necktie.
HA!! **shaking head** What is it with Dems/Liberals/Leftists with their fetish with symbolism for EVERY moment of the day? Two colors I really can't stand seeing: 1) OverBite's "Resistance" Purple Needless to say, "Gay" Rainbow. (And what's it tell us that Queer Inc.was allowed to hijack both the word definition of "gay" AND God's "rainbow"? Here's an interesting narrative of the Rainbow Flag and it's symbolism explained as the Queer Mafia managed to usurp God's own stated symbolism: https://www.rforh.com/resources/know-it/what-about/why-did-the-lgbt-use-gods-rainbow-for-their-flag In 1978 San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker created his version of the rainbow flag in response to a local activist’s call for the need of a community symbol.[ugh, another word, "Communitah", that's been hijacked.] Baker dyed and sewed the material for the first flag himself and it had 8 colors. This multi-colored flag morphed into a banner of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement, which is commonly referred to today as LGBT. Each of the colors had a specific meaning: On November 27, 1978, the openly gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk was assassinated. As a consequence the demand for the flag greatly increased. So, in order to meet the demand, the Paramount Flag Company began selling a version of the flag using stock rainbow fabric consisting of seven stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, and violet. Baker eventually dropped the hot pink color because he couldn’t find the fabric. In 1979 the flag was hung vertically from the lamp posts of San Francisco’s Market Street. Because of the width of the seven stripe flag the center stripe was covered up by the post itself. In order to fix this problem they changed the design to have an even number of stripes so they dropped the turquoise stripe. That left them with the six stripe version of the flag that we see today consisting of — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. So, even though the LGBT flag might be called by the name of God’s token of promise to all mankind, it’s NOT a true rainbow. God’s rainbow has always had seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.isn't quite tantamount to hijacking God's Rainbow on a technicality. These people are chronic liars. I mean if Bruce Jenner can call himself a "female" then NO lie is big enough for them. Challenge that publicly and the ACLU will be suing you and homo-fascist mobs will be trying to ruin you financially.
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#11. To: Liberator (#1)
What kind of person wishes him ill-will and failure?
#34. To: redleghunter (#11)
#43. To: CZ82, redleghunter, no gnu taxes, A K A Stone (#34)
What do you expect he's wearing a Barney necktie.
2) NFL/"Breast Awareness" pink. It's a fake PR sham. It's real intent?: To "feminize" traditional male realms.
3) 
Replies to Comment # 43.
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