Tim Tebow is about to leave his first professional baseball team, the Columbia Fireflies.
This past weekend, New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson announced that the 29-year-old outfielder will be promoted to the Class A-Advanced St. Lucie Mets after Sunday night’s game.
Tebow held a press conference after the announcement to share his thoughts:
“Sometimes the results are there sometimes they’re not there, sometimes that’s the game of baseball,” Tebow said. “Like yesterday, I thought I had three really good at-bats in the game and you got no hits to show for it. But I know my progress has led me to being able to have three really good at-bats. … As an athlete, you can’t worry about all those things. You have to focus on, ‘Am I seeing the pitches, am I identifying them and what am I doing with them, am I finding things that I can do damage with.’ The results are whatever else people are talking about.”
Tebow, a two-time national champion, Heisman Trophy winner at Florida, author of 3 books, and star of a short film, has attracted a massive cult following in minor league baseball.
In just one season of playing with the Columbia team, Tebow helped push their average attendance up nearly 40% over a year ago to an SAL-best 5,230. The Tebow-led team also sold out games on the road on a regular basis, with Tebow’s football fans coming out in droves to every city the Fireflies visited.
Fireflies president John Katz commented that Tebow’s contributions to the team and community “have made a tremendous impact on our team, the City of Columbia and the entire South Atlantic League. We wish Tim the best as he continues his journey to Citi Field.”
Tebow played his last official game with the Fireflies last night against the Kannapolis Intimidators at Columbia’s Spirit Communications Park after 63 games with the team.