OT: Teebow homers on first pitch as a professional baseball player

[Keith A]

Just saw that Tim Teebow hit a home-run on his very first pitch as a pro baseball player...
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=17660738

[wooly]

Considering all the haters that was pretty awesome.

[FlashUNC]

Its Sub-A ball.

[Keith A]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Its Sub-A ball.

True, but given that hitting a baseball is reported to be "the hardest thing to do in sports"...it's a pretty good start.

[Dave B]

I think sports need someone like him to be successful. I have read enough of athletes beating up so and so, being arrrsted for this drug or that drug or their divorce being made public.

Good on him for not giving up on sport...I hope he is incredibly successful

[Elefantino]

The Donald J. Trump Foundation just paid $25,000 for the bat.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by Keith A

True, but given that hitting a baseball is reported to be "the hardest thing to do in sports"...it's a pretty good start.

YUP - hitting a round ball with a round bat is very difficult - baseball is 3 inches and diameter of the bat is even smaller - maybe 2 ¾ inches. Thus, if you succeed a third of the time (3 out of 10) you are a superstar.

[Ralph]

He will fill up a grandstand! Isn't that the whole point of a sports team?

[93legendti]

I was an all star catcher and hit cleanup on my little league teams. I hit a few home runs. It is extremely hard to do. Regardless of the level. I never hit a home run when I tried to- that's when I struck out or popped up. I hit homers when I told myself to "just make contact and hit a single".

He is at that level because that's where he belongs for now.

When pros go down to AAA for rehab assignments they don't hit homers every game. Even against a minor league pitcher, it is very hard for a pro to hit a homer.

A home run is the perfect combination of reading the pitch, timing your swing, swinging correctly and putting the barrel on the ball while the ball is in the hitting zone.

Go to a batting cage and try to hit "fastballs" at 70mph from a machine and tell me how easy it is. Even knowing that every pitch is a fastball, it is HARD.

Good for Tebow.

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by wc1934

YUP - hitting a round ball with a round bat is very difficult - baseball is 3 inches and diameter of the bat is even smaller - maybe 2 ¾ inches. Thus, if you succeed a third of the time (3 out of 10) you are a superstar.

"The hardest thing to do in baseball is hit a round ball with a round bat squarely."
- Ted Williams

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

"The hardest thing to do in baseball is hit a round ball with a round bat squarely."
- Ted Williams

Splendid Splinter - last 400 hitter - Teddy Ballgame!

[Louis]

Who is the Tim Tebow person? Never heard of him.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Keith A

Just saw that Tim Teebow hit a home-run on his very first pitch as a pro baseball player...
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=17660738

Ya know, yes he's kinda strange sometimes but I read a decent guy who, even though won the Heisman, went nowhere..He's an athlete..hope it makes it, but really doubt it.

[RobJ]

My first thought too,was good for him and hopefully this shuts up the so called "experts". The kid has tenacity and drive. He's a great athlete and probably could still be in the NFL if he would have switched positions. With the idiots like Greg Hardy etc. we could use more like Tebow in all sports.

[batman1425]

Great documentary - "Fastball" (available on netflix) talks about the importance of the pitch in the sport and also the physics and physiology.

Really interesting discussion about how hitting a Fastball sits at what many experts believe to be at the very edge of unassisted human ability. 95-100ish MPH is basically the limit of how fast a human can throw, and the resulting reaction time needed to process and swing at something moving that fast from 60ft away (300ish milliseconds) is just slightly within human capability.

From an absolute physiology perspective hitting a fastball is just barely attainable - assuming the athlete as good as it is physiologically possible to be. Puts things in perspective.