MANCHESTER, NH – Weather cannot stop Tebowmania. It can only slow it down.
After the postponement of Monday’s contest between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Tuesday marks the New Hampshire debut of Heisman Trophy winner and current Rumble Pony leftfielder Tim Tebow.
Despite his fame as a football player, baseball was actually Tebow’s first love, first playing the game at the age of four, and initially planning to become a professional straight out of high school.
Tebow’s completely focused on baseball right now, but rumors are constantly swirling over whether he’ll return to football at some point.
On Tuesday, he declined to indicate what path he’d take if he ever faced a moment where he had to choose once and for all, given the important role both sports have played over his life.
“I love both of them,” he said. “There’s a time and a place (for both), and for me, football was such a big part of my life and I love it and I’ll always love it and I’ll always want to have a part in the game, but I think you can love more than one thing.”
In 2017, Tebow had a .226/.309/.347 slash line split between Single-A Columbia and Advanced Single-A Port St. Lucie.
His presence helped give Port St. Lucie a record year in terms of attendance, single-handedly giving the entire Florida State League a 12.4 percent year-over-year attendance increase.
Needless to say, the media attention he receives is somewhat abnormal compared to the average minor league baseball player. But Tebow says his teammates have gotten used to the glare of his spotlight.
“I don’t think they really care that much anymore,” he said. “At first, it was a little different, but now they’re used to it and if anything, they have fun with it.”
He began his year with a first-pitch home run in Portland, cooling off since Opening Day.
The former quarterback has just a .200/.200/.360 slash line over his first seven games at the Double-A level, although he came into Manchester on Monday with a three-game hitting streak.
Those stats might make a major league future seem like a longshot if he doesn’t improve. Tebow remains confident that he will make the big leagues, but is firmly focused on refining his craft with the Rumble Ponies.
“I think a mistake a lot of athletes make is they focus on the future rather than the present,” he said. “We have goals for the future and you work toward them and you let them motivate us, but you have to focus on today.”