Posted on 08/23/2016 2:28:19 PM PDT by drewh
Tuesday morning, the front page of ESPN.com — which has long been the most valuable piece of Internet real estate in all of sports — featured a story on the baseball exploits of ex-NFL quarterback Tim Tebow.
According to the article, more than two-thirds of all MLB teams apparently have at least some interest in the Heisman Trophy winner, who last played baseball in high school — where he was an all-state selection in Florida.
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Just how did ESPN manage to land this scoop? Let’s break it down.
Here’s the first line of the report:
Tim Tebow is scheduled to hold a workout for Major League Baseball teams on Aug. 30 in Los Angeles, a source told ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick.
The very next line cites a (different?) source talking to another ESPN reporter.
More than 20 MLB teams are confirmed to attend the workout, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Two paragraphs down, a third ESPN reporter gets in on the anonymous source fun.
Tebow had a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers before this season, sources have told ESPN’s Darren Rovell. A scout was present for the workout, and the team showed interest in Tebow afterward, the sources said.
Three anonymous source citations from three different reporters in five paragraphs is already problematic for a report that hardly qualifies as being Watergate-level in terms of the public’s need to know. What further complicates matters is that Tim Tebow is currently under contract with ESPN. And this report, save for one brief mention of the “mixed reaction” surrounding Tebow’s desire to play baseball, basically reads as PR fluff.
The Rovell-reported passage is clear in what it implies. A major league team actually saw Tebow play baseball, and is still interested in him. That anonymously sourced information is very clearly communicating that Tim Tebow can still play baseball. And its placement on the ESPN homepage makes it essentially a commercial to the MLB teams not already ticketed to attend Tebow’s workout on Aug. 30 (which exists, a source told Jerry Crasnick, and will have 20 teams in attendence, a source told Adam Schefter).
Hey, you’d better get in on the frenzy. Tim Tebow is here, and he can help sell a bushel of tickets for your Double-A team!
And ESPN is looking to capitalize on Tebow-mania too, which it, of course, is helping to create. They want people tuning in to whatever broadcast he pops up on during the baseball offseason. As it stands now, ESPN will almost certainly profit off of Tim Tebow’s baseball exploits. He’s back in the news, at the top of people’s minds.
Tim Tebow is immensely popular. There’s no getting around that, whether one is a fan of his or not. So the revelation that he’s pursuing a baseball career is news, and ESPN is justified in running it, and featuring it high up on the website.
But when ESPN gets an anonymously sourced scoop about an employee, then runs a puff piece off of which they will profit, they’re wading into murky journalistic waters.
At the very least, ESPN should sever its ties with Tebow for as long he’s pursuing his baseball career. Otherwise, ESPN’s journalistic integrity may take a hit.
I can’t believe he’s 29 already.
If Jordan couldn’t make it in baseball, Tebow won’t.
He has the size to be a really good slugger, if he also has the eyesight and coordination.
He’s no Steve Gavey that’s for sure
It’s only a stunt if thy do. It’ll take two years for a guy to learn to hit big league pitching. He’ll have to do that in the minors and why would any minor league team give up a roster spot to a young kid and instead hand it to a guy who wouldn’t hit the bigs at best until he’s 31 or 32? Not a chance. I’d never let him take up space on one of my minor league rosters. He might be nice guy, but this is business.
As a business, it’s all merit. If he can hit the ball at the requisite level of play, you give him a roster. He might only be able to play well for a few years, but it’s certainly more money than he’s making now.
Nothing against Tim Tebow but this has publicity stunt written all over it.
You’re forgetting one thing: Tebow is left handed. I’m not saying an left handed idiot can automatically make it into the show, but baseball teams will take much more of a chance on a lefty who has some skills over a righty who can hit moderately well and play decent defense. How do I know? Because I was that righty I speak of, though “moderately well” may be pushing it with respect to my hitting. At any rate, there were hundreds, even thousands, of guys like me at any college baseball team’s disposal but only a few left handers with even remotely similar ability. The same is true in the baseball draft.
If he still has his speed, that’s a plus. He’ll play left, right, first, or DH. Its not a stunt if Tebow is still in shape, and we both know he is.
The author's got jokes - funny stuff. :)
Well, he’s got the arm to sling the ball quite a way from the outfield or rifle it across the infield. He has great hand-eye coordination. And he’s played the game, albeit only in high school, but he made all-state.
Hmm, maybe not just a publicity stunt.
Tebow is just an athlete pursuing his dream of becoming a pro-athlete.
No more. No less.
Your comment is typical of a Christianphobe with a severe case of TDS.
Good for him.
Ha! During the 80's there were t-shirts made....
"Steve Garvey is not my Padre"
:D
My Filipino in-law showed me the community newspaper and Tebow has his own charity hospital in the Philippines he had built from his own money. and it just opened recently. It was buried in the middle pages.
No one almost knows this outside of the Philippines, and if this was a publicity stunt, then he should have easily bragged about that newly opened modern hospital for children.
Tebow does not have to learn to hit against major league pitching if he is signed as a relief pitcher. A successful left handed relief pitcher is extremely valuable and his career could last into his early 40s.
The Dodgers are in need of pitching so this could be a good gamble.
The Marlins have a AA team in Tebow’s home town. He’d sell a lot of tickets here. Guaranteed.
Jackie Robinson was a college football star who became a big league baseball star.
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