Welcome back to the Tim Tebow Watch Watch, in which we look for breathless hyperbole and/or questionable baseball analysis when it comes to the minor-league career of Tim Tebow. It’s supposed to be fun and snarky, and it’s supposed to bring clicks to SB Nation.
Tim Tebow Watch Watch: A promotion and ‘some positives’
Tim Tebow is moving up, and the Associated Press would like you to know that some things are positive.
Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports
More clicks means more ad revenue.
More ad revenue means job security.
My kids need to eat.
Let’s chat about Tebow.
And while this didn’t start out as a scheduled goof on the Associated Press, they are certainly the most willing subjects of the Tim Tebow Watch Watch. Their weekly check-ins with Tebow’s progress have been framed in bizarre ways.
For example:
You catch that headline?
Tebow’s last week with Fireflies includes some positives
Well, as a person interested in Tebow’s progress, you have my attention. Let me just click through and read the actual article ...
Tebow was 2 of 13 for the week with three strikeouts.
Man. That’s like finding a fingernail in your hamburger and leading with a headline that reads, “Report: French fries remain delicious.”
I guess the challenge is that no one wants to read a headline that starts with “Tebow struggles again” if they’re only interested in him succeeding. So the AP is forced to do some serious gymnastics if they want to get those glorious, nourishing Tebow clicks.
Tebow is still hitting better than anyone should expect from a 29-year-old who hadn’t played baseball in a decade, which is a testimony to his athleticism. And Ted Berg of USA Today makes some great points about Tebow’s promotion to High-A:
All true. It turns out that Tebow really is good for the box office, so there is certainly logic to Tebow being moved up to the Florida State League. It turns out that Tebow is mildly popular in that particular state, which means he’ll make money for the St. Lucie Mets, who are owned by ... the New York Mets.
Fair enough. It’s probably the fault of the other teams with affiliates in the FSL for not thinking of this first, really.
With the promotion, you’ll get more articles like the one from the AP. There will be “some positives.” Glimmers will be shown. Seeds of hope will be planted. Mistakes will be made, but mistakes will not make the headlines.
And there might be some 2-for-13 stretches with strikeouts mixed in, but that’s just a technical quibble.
