Forget Tim Tebow: Here are five actual baseball stories worth your attention

Ryan Fagan

Forget Tim Tebow: Here are five actual baseball stories worth your attention image

Hey, did you know Tim Tebow is a baseball player now? 

Of course you know, unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock the past couple weeks. The Mets gave the former NFL quarterback a $100,000 bonus to sign — roughly equivalent to what some 10th-round draft picks received — and he reported to the Mets’ complex in Florida on Monday to begin workouts for the instructional league. 

Things tend to get crazy when Tebow’s involved, and this is no different. According to Alyson Footer of MLB.com, there were 70 media credentials issued and around 400 fans at the complex. Typically, those numbers are closer to single digits. The Mets wasted no time putting Tebow’s jersey up for sale on the team website, and pictures of Tebow on the field wearing his Mets jersey are all over Twitter. And Tebow’s throws are apparently all over the field, too. 

Anyway, on this Monday afternoon in mid-September, we thought we’d give you five baseball topics that are more worthy of your attention than a 29-year-old former football player beginning a baseball journey that has pretty much zero chance of ending in the major leagues. 

MORE: The 12 ugliest collapses in MLB history

1. Hanley Ramirez ends the Yankees’ playoff dream

The Yankees had a golden opportunity to capitalize on their youth-fueled momentum heading into a four-game set with the Red Sox in Fenway Park. And they actually played really well for most of their time in their biggest rival’s home ballpark. Problem was, they just couldn’t finish the job

They had leads of at least three runs in three of the four games and wound up losing all four games. Hanley Ramirez was a particularly sharp thorn in their side. In those four games, Ramirez went 9-for-16 (.563 average) with four homers, nine RBIs and a 1.963 OPS. 

His three-run homer in the ninth inning of the series opener off Yankees closer Dellin Betances capped Boston’s dramatic five-run ninth and gave the Red Sox a 7-5 win. And then in the series finale, Ramirez popped a three-run homer off Yankees starter CC Sabathia with two outs in the fifth, cutting New York’s lead from 4-0 to 4-3. Then, with the game tied at 4 in the seventh, Ramirez hit a solo homer to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead, and that was the final score. But, hey, do you remember when Tebow led the Florida Gators to the 2008 national title?  

2. The Blue Jays are in trouble

These Blue Jays hit lots of homers and score lots of runs. That’s just what they do, and it’s what they’ve done for the past couple years, with mashers Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion in the middle of the lineup. That power helped them reach the playoffs last year and has them in the AL East race again this season. 

But September has been one giant struggle. The Blue Jays are last in baseball in runs scored in September, with just 55. No, really. The Red Sox lead MLB with 106 runs scored; the Jays have plated just 55 heading into play Monday (the Angels are next-to-last, at 58). Devon Travis is hitting .382 this month, but the list of struggling regulars is long — Jose Bautista (.224), Melvin Upton, Jr. (.167), Josh Donaldson (.163), Michael Saunders (.128), Kevin Pillar (.231), Russell Martin (.182).

Toronto opened September in first place in the AL East, two games ahead of the Red Sox, but the Jays are just 5-11 this month. Now, they’re sitting in the second wild-card spot, just two games ahead of the Tigers and Mariners and three ahead of the Astros. If they don’t figure out a way to end the offensive ineptitude, they could miss the postseason entirely. But, hey, Tebow’s pretty good as an ESPN college football announcer and now he’s playing baseball but he's still going to be a broadcaster while at instructs so that's cool.

MORE: The 11 most controversial players in MLB history

3. Turner is a rising star

Nationals fans have long been excited to see phenom Trea Turner playing for the big club in D.C., instead of tearing up the minor leagues. He’s validating that excitement. Turner, who was the 13th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft by the Padres and came to D.C. in a three-way deal with the Rays that saw the Nationals send away Steven Souza and Travis Ott, has been the team’s best position player in the second half (he appeared in only three games before the All-Star break). 

In fact, by FanGraph’s WAR, he’s been the second-best position player in all of baseball, with a 3.3 WAR. Only Brian Dozier (4.2) has been better, with Mike Trout, Corey Seager and Joey Votto just behind, at 3.2. Turner’s second-half numbers: .353 average, .963 OPS, 11 homers, 12 doubles, 34 RBIs, 27 stolen bases and a .590 slugging percentage. 

He’s started games at second base and center field for the Nationals in the second half, which is pretty amazing considering he was pretty much exclusively a shortstop before coming to the majors — he played 232 games in the minors at short, seven at second base and zero in center field. But, hey, remember when Tebow quarterback’d the Broncos to a playoff win?

4. Teixeira on steroid users

Mark Teixeira carved out a long, successful career as a powerful switch-hitting first baseman. Teixeira, who announced that he’s retiring after the 2016 season, did a lengthy Q&A with Fox Sports reporter Ken Rosenthal. One of the questions was about Teixeira’s thoughts on penalties for players caught using PEDs. 

His answer was interesting: “It’s tough for me to accept that guys are trying to cheat and are still allowed to play the game. If you’re on Wall Street and you get charged with insider trading and you’re convicted, you don’t trade anymore. If you’re at Harvard and you start cheating on tests, you’re getting kicked out. We’ve done a better job. But guys that are trying to cheat, it’s very tough for me to accept that they’re allowed to stay in the game.”

Yep, that’s a respected veteran player basically saying he would prefer for players busted for PED use to be kicked out of the game, for good. But, hey, did you know Tebow won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and he’s a baseball player now? 

5. Joseph slides toward RBI infamy

The RBI is no longer considered one of baseball’s sacred stats (too many outside factors influence a player’s opportunities to collect RBIs), but what Orioles backup catcher Caleb Joseph is doing — or, isn’t doing — still catches the eye of baseball fans. He’s had 135 plate appearances in 46 games this season. He’s batting .183 with a .432 OPS, which is kind of awful but not why he’s here.  

Joseph doesn’t have a single RBI this season. Zilch. Zero. Nada. He’s had 60 plate appearances with runners on base, and he’s batting .145 in those PAs. He’s had 28 PAs with runners in scoring position, and he’s batting .077 (2-for-26 with two walks). He’s had eight PAs with a runner on third base, and he’s 0-for-7 with a walk. 

Joseph hit 11 homers and had 49 RBIs last season. This year, he has a grand total of three extra-base hits (all doubles) in his 135 PAs. He’s closing in on an infamous record for most PAs in a season without any RBIs, currently held by Oscar Jones, who had 150 RBI-free PAs in 1904. But Oscar Jones was a pitcher; the record for non-pitchers is A’s infielder Steve Staggs, who had 97 PAs without an RBI in 1978 (this Baltimore Sun piece on Joseph’s RBI struggles is worth your time). But, hey, did you know Tebow hadn’t played baseball since he was in high school but hit a bunch of tape-measure homers in his batting practice workout for MLB teams? 

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.