Despite Early Baseball Success, TV Critics Still Down on Tebow

On Wednesday, Tim Tebow, outfielder in the New York Mets organization, knocked the first pitch thrown his way in professional baseball over the fence.

Many laughed at the ESPN college football analyst when he made the decision to play baseball because he could not find work in the sport he excelled at in college and he had not played baseball since high school.

When Tebow held his workout in front of scouts from 28 of the 30 MLB teams, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith called it a “disservice and a level of disrespect to members of the baseball community who had to compete on their grind and work their tails off.” Smith later added that he was disgusted because Tebow was “experiencing a level of privilege that most people don’t get to experience.”

On Thursday, Smith was admittedly in shock when he saw that Tebow homered in his first at-bat, only to be OK when he saw Tebow finished his instructional league debut with only one hit in six at-bats.

Over on Fox Sports 1’s carbon copy of “First Take,” co-host Shannon Sharpe argued with former “First Take” co-host Skip Bayless over the authenticity of Tebow’s home run, saying the whole thing was “scripted” for a movie in the making.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

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