Even though he legitimately looked like a 9-year-old shagging flyballs during his pro baseball tryout in late August, the Mets signed Tim Tebow to a minor league contract—with a $100,000 bonus!—based on...well, it's still unclear why the team signed the 29-year-old former NFL player (maybe to sell jerseys?) but they did. Sure, Tebow hasn't played organized baseball since his junior year of high school back in 2005, but when you have a dream, you chase it, right?
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon, which is when Tebow made his pro baseball debut. And wouldn't you know that on the very first pitch of the most anticipated at-bat in Instructional League history, Tebow hit—what else?—a home run. Tebow's opposite field shot came off a 91 MPH fastball. You can watch it here:
The pitcher who served up the home run was Cardinals' 22-year-old lefty John Kilichowski, who was drafted out of Vanderbilt's vaunted program by St. Louis in the 11th round of the 2016 MLB Draft in June.
After his first AB, Tebow's second plate appearance was slightly less successful as he grounded into a double play. This is the kind of play that will probably be a lot more common for Tebow during his first season.
Both of Tebow's at-bats came in front of a reported attendance of 269, which has to be some kind of Instructional League record.
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