SYRACUSE — Out in left field, roughly equidistant from the children’s between-inning dizzy-bat races and the rumbling trains over the outfield wall, in front of a crowd of 8,823 chilly fans at NBT Bank Stadium, one of the most recognizable and beloved faces in all of sports crouched, ready for anything.
Day 1 was not Tim Tebow’s best, even if every day at the park during this journey belongs to him.
On the first day, Tebow rested. Or at least, he may as well have, putting up the same 0-for-4 statline that he might have when Tony Sparano was orchestrating the Jets’ Wildcat offense.
Two-hundred sixty miles northwest of the Mets’ home opener, a new affiliate kicked off and a cult hero got a little bit closer to Queens, as the Triple-A Syracuse Mets broke ground with a 6-3, 10-inning loss against the Pawtucket Red Sox on Thursday afternoon.
“Tim will be fine,” Syracuse manager Tony DeFrancesco said after the loss, which was finished off by Pawtucket closer Jenrry Mejia. “Triple-A’s a little different. They match up with him, the lefties give him a tough time. He chased some pitches out of the zone.”
Cheers followed Tebow wherever he went, despite his two strikeouts, even if the loudest roar from the crowd may have been when a foul ball landed with a splash in a man’s beer.
The crowd, filled with orange and blue jerseys, braved the elements on a school day in welcoming a club the Mets moved from Las Vegas. While the stands were not filled, they were lively.
“I wouldn’t go sit out in 30 degrees, so it was really cool seeing all these guys, fans come out,” said reliever Jacob Rhame, who yo-yo’d between Nevada and Flushing for parts of the past two seasons.
“I love it here compared to Vegas. For one, the stadium’s nice. The fans are nice. Vegas wasn’t ideal. … I don’t mind the cold as long as I don’t have to deal with 120 degrees in the summer.”
The fans showed up for baseball, the Mets and Tebow, whose passionate following has built ever since his University of Florida days, when his faith and aw-shucks nature turned a football standout into a cultural icon. Even now, the 31-year-old is working on getting his call-up while he’s not writing an autobiography or hosting CBS’ “Million Dollar Mile.”
So, Tebow will see time in a show. But The Show? Round 3 of the climb is beginning for Tebow, who did not speak to reporters.
“Overall, I think they’re going to try to pound him in,” DeFrancesco said. “He’s got to make adjustments and stay short through the ball. Defensively, he caught what he was supposed to catch out there. He did a decent job.”
Facing the No. 13 Red Sox prospect, right-hander Mike Shawaryn, the lefty Tebow watched a 3-0 count become a strikeout in the second inning, beginning his campaign without the drama that accompanied his past two opening days. He had homered in his first at-bat in both Single-A Columbia and Double-A Binghamton.
After ground outs in his next two at-bats, Tebow stepped to the plate in the ninth in a 3-3 game, a creeping-forward crowd awaiting a moment they had seen go viral so many times. But it wasn’t to be. Lefty Josh Taylor struck him out.
“He was pumped. There were a lot of people out there [cheering for him],” veteran outfielder Gregor Blanco said of Tebow, who adequately played the field yet took a poor angle on a 10th-inning, bases-clearing double from Tony Renda. “… It didn’t come out the way he wanted it, but he was excited.”
His run in Binghamton last season made the punch line less funny, the circus act more mainstream. No longer was he perceived as a former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL flameout who could draw fans. Well, yes he was, but maybe he could hit.
Tebow slashed .273/.336/.399 in 84 Double-A games, even making the league’s All-Star Game, but hand surgery ended his season before it could finish in Queens. His quest to Citi Field picked up this spring, when he went 4-for-15 (.267) without an extra-base hit in major league camp. For a franchise without outfield depth — starting alongside Tebow were different-kind-of-fliers Blanco and Carlos Gomez and with Rajai Davis serving as DH — Tim Tebow is no longer a joke.
“He always tries to do the little things that help him get better,” Blanco said. “Everybody has seen how he’s developed the last few years, the player he’s become.”
Will the fans at Citi Field see it?