Yesterday we told you about Tim Tebow's big day. He was going to face live pitching in a spring training. And not just any live pitching -- the NFL quarterback-turned-MLB longshot would step into the box against Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.
Spoiler alert: Tebowmania did not run wild on this day. Whatever is the opposite of Tebowmania ... that's what happened.
Things started ... dubiously. In the third inning, Tebow walked behind the catcher and took warm-up swings from the wrong on-deck circle. Porcello later told reporters he had mistaken Tebow for a ball boy when he saw a beefy individual in a Mets uniform on the wrong side of the field.
"I thought you walk around because you're a left-hander," Tebow bafflingly told reporters afterward. "I found out you don't do that."
The man's fortunes failed to improve from there. Tebow never made contact in his one and only at-bat against Porcello, wiped away by four average fastballs.
In his second at-bat, Tebow grounded into a routine double play with the bases loaded. Mets TV guy Ron Darling noted that it was "the first standing ovation I've ever seen for hitting into a double play." A run scored, but Tebow was not credited for a RBI.
In his third at-bat, Tebow was hit by a pitch, then got himself doubled off first base when the next batter lined out to second. Tebow struck out on three pitches in his final at-bat.
It was pretty much a worst-case scenario, a lost day that made both Tebow and the Mets look bad. (I'll argue the Mets are coming off worse than anyone in this farce, but that's another discussion.) Tebow is back in the lineup again on Friday, and God help us, they're going to let him try to play the outfield.
