Posted on 05/06/2017 10:23:01 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Tim Tebow is a big-league hit in the minor leagues.
The Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback has minor league fans around the Single A South Atlantic League flocking to stadiums and jamming ticket lines to see the Columbia Fireflies outfielder and designated-hitter.
The Hickory Crawdads sold out four games with the Fireflies, its total of 17,500 for the series surpassing the 15,900 they drew their first eight games.
"We had 4,500 people in the stands," Crawdads season ticket holder Christopher Pack said, "and 4,300 were there to see Tim Tebow."
People show up in Tebow's NFL jerseys, and Florida Gator outfits, lining up around the rails in this intimate ballparks trying to get autograph or a selfie with Tebow.
It may be unclear if he will ever get to "The Show," but one is clear: Tebow is the biggest show currently playing Class A ball.
That was apparent last Saturday in the eighth inning against Hickory when Tebow, on his off day with the New York Mets affiliate , heard the Crawdads crowd chant his name, hoping that Columbia manager Jose Leger would get him in the game.
"It's not something you see all the time," Hickory general manager Mark Seaman said.
The welcomed chaos has been evident during Tebow's three road trips in April.
In Augusta, Georgia, the GreenJackets front-office staff had to scramble and find enough workers for concessions: 5,830 fans turned out, well above their season's average of 3,190. A few days later in Rome, Georgia, — smack in the heart of Southeastern Conference football territory where the former Florida Gator was a polarizing figure — Tebow and the Fireflies drew 5,105 fans.
Good for Tim and the team.
Tebow is 21 for 86 (.244) with 2 HR. Not horrible (bearing in mind that he’s 30 facing guys who are 20), and, more importantly, showing the improvement necessary at the plate to keep interest in him. Hasn’t shown good defensive OF instincts, though he is working hard at it.
He's just an All-American Christian good guy. A real role model for kids.
Will Tebow ever make it to the majors? Who knows, but he's definitely having a positive effect on his team and in each stadium he's playing in..........And that's all that really matters.
Where I live here in S.E. Michigan, Jimmy Johns helped build a stadium that is hosting the United Shore Baseball League, which is only made up of 4 teams and these kids are primarily ex college players who never made it to the minors.
Last year was their first season and already a few of the kids were signed to minor league contracts. Friends who have attended games absolutely loved it. Good baseball, family oriented, and cheap tickets....
I just received a flier in my mailbox yesterday - $58 Family Fun Pack which includes the following:
4 Box Seats
4 Hot Dogs
4 Soft Drinks
and Free Parking...........Can't beat that.
Just shows he would have put butts in the seats if he hadn’t been boycotted in the NFL. Does anyone really think the Browns, Bears, Jags, or Fags would have done any worse last year with TeBow as QB than they did with their ‘pro quality’ player leading the team?
Of course, he didn’t bring to the league what a Sams or a Colon did.
Attendance on the fall league went up the year Michael Jordan took the year off from basketball. Good business decision to put him amongst the higher prospects even though he didn’t belong there. He wasn’t that good at age 33. Business will always make that call leaving a deserving prospect short changed. Remember HIV positive-Magic being an all star AFTER he retired. A marketing or political statement?
When I worked Summers near Asheville, we would regularly watch the Asheville Tourists play. For a while it was the Asheville Orioles then back to Tourists.
I remember when Denny McClain pitched for the Birmingham A’s and they came to town. Stands were not packed but were nearly full.
Wonder why? Because the American people LOVE him for making a stand and being an openly devout Christian who actually lives a good and decent life. They want their children to see a good role model and everyone is rooting for him because he was so vilified for it. That is the real America and what the libs will never, ever understand
I agree. He somebody parents would like to have their kids watch - and unlike the many entitled thugs in pro sports.
The media said everyone hates him, how can this be?
Ridiculous that he wasn’t a starter or at least backup in the NFL.
All those QBs have higher completion percentages that Tim. The simple fact is Tim got a BUNCH of chances, more than most QBs with his highly limited talent, and he simply did not prove to be up the task. Tebow worshipers need to get over it, he was not an NFL caliber QB, he proved it over course of 5 years working with 4 teams. The will is there, the talent is not.
Actually NOBODY said people hate Tebow. That’s simply made up junk.
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discostu, world authority on “football for atheists.”
Bitterness is medicine to some.
He was never good enough to be a starter, and too much a distraction to be a backup. You simply can’t have a backup whose name gets chanted every time the starter throws an incompletion. And you can’t have a starter that hits the grass more often than he hits a man.
Editor-surveyor, world authority on posting drunk and pulling flat out lies out of his nethers.
Meanwhile, back in reality, the numbers tell the story. Show me any other guy with sub 50% completions getting that many chances. The NFL really WANTED his to succeed, but he couldn’t pull it off. Only bitterness in this is from the worshippers who just can’t grasp the fact that their idol didn’t cut the mustard. I like the guy, but he’s nowhere the first guy I liked who didn’t have the talent.
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Your bitterness is your identity here.
Keep it up.
your lies are your identity. Grow past it.
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