Tim Tebow was bound to have a standout baseball moment during his season in the minor leagues, right?
Thursday night in Port St. Lucie, the former Heisman Trophy winner, NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst (for the SEC Network) gave the home fans some excitement to end the evening. Batting as the designated hitter, Tebow hit an opposite field home run to give the St. Lucie Mets a 5-4 walkoff victory over the Daytona Tortugas in a seven-inning game. (The teams played a doubleheader on Thursday.)
Facing an 0-1 count, Tebow, 29, launched a fastball from Daytona’s Austin Orewiler down the left-field line to give his team the victory. As you might expect, many in the crowd had their phones out, hoping for some magic from Tebow and he didn’t disappoint. Footage of the home run popped up on Twitter almost immediately.
TIM TEBOW WALK-OFF HOMER IN BOTTOM 7 —>>>VIDEO @Mets #Mets #LGM #NYM pic.twitter.com/mL9XIceGhJ
— By Bill Whitehead (@BillWhiteheadFL) July 14, 2017
TIM TEBOW WALK-OFF HOME RUN ON THE FIRST PITCH! pic.twitter.com/O7o7sAoUt2
— Zach Dean (@TeamZachDean) July 14, 2017
Game winning Homerun by Tim Tebow!!!!!! #MLB #Mets #STLMets #LGM pic.twitter.com/LjIXvTIbbB
— New York Mets (@Sbott123) July 14, 2017
According to Tebow, it was the first walkoff homer he hit since his junior year of high school, which gave his Nease High School team the district championship. (Tebow didn’t play baseball his senior year, choosing to concentrate on football.)
Plenty of people are skeptical about Tebow playing in the Mets’ minor-league system, since there’s little chance of him making it to the majors. But he’s advanced from low-Class A to advanced A-ball (whether he deserved to or not), and has arguably responded to the challenge. Maybe playing in Florida, wearing blue and orange, has put Tebow in a comfort zone.
Tebow now has a hit in 11 straight after today's walk-off HR.
The longest MLB hitting streak by a Met this season is 11 by Rene Rivera. https://t.co/P51FDWK8WH
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 14, 2017
With Thursday’s walkoff homer, Tebow has now gotten a hit in 11 straight games for St. Lucie. In 16 games (yeah, yeah — small sample size), he’s batted .327/.421/.551 with three home runs (all of which have gone to the opposite field) and 10 RBI. That’s the same number of homers he compiled in 64 games with Class A Columbia. Perhaps opposing pitchers are still challenging Tebow, wanting to see if he can hit their good stuff. So far, Tebow has shown he can.
Tebow's walkoff home run completes a doubleheader SWEEP!!! Mets take the first game 1-0, win second game 5-4. #STLMets pic.twitter.com/xQUOy1jyyz
— St. Lucie Mets (@stluciemets) July 14, 2017
