Orioles Manager Buck Showalter Dismissive of Tim Tebow’s Attempt at Pro Baseball

Earlier in the week news broke that former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow seeks a tryout with Major League Baseball clubs. The news doesn’t impress Baltimore Orioles Manager Buck Showalter.

Tebow’s agents revealed that the Heisman Trophy-winner has been working with several trainers to hone his baseball skills for a serious tryout for MLB teams scheduled for the end of August.

But with the news filling every sports column and broadcast, during a recent interview of his own the Orioles’ Showalter was asked what he thought of Tebow’s quest and it appears he doesn’t think much of it at all.

Showalter was asked directly about Tebow’s tryout for pro ball and he seemed pretty dismissive.

“Am I intrigued?” Showalter said of the Tebow news. “No, not at all. Amused? No, not at all.”

An interest in baseball is not totally out of the blue for the one-time NFL quarterback.

The former pro football player who was cut by the Philadelphia Eagles before the regular season in 2015 was an all-state baseball player in Florida hitting .494 in his junior year of high school. During his time with the team, Nease High School reached the final four during the 2005 Florida state playoffs.

But Showalter went on to imply that Tebow didn’t really deserve the attention he was getting over his announcement of the hunt for a new career in baseball by noting that other, younger wannabes are out there working hard to jump up to the majors.

“I think about what these guys do in our Dominican Academy and Delmarva and Aberdeen and the Gulf Coast League and Frederick and Bowie and Norfolk, I take very seriously the stuff they have to do to get the opportunities and do what they’re doing,” the Orioles chief said.

Next Showalter hinted that he felt the Tebow situation might end up just being a publicity stunt saying, “Somebody will sell some tickets in the spring. I should be careful, we may sign him,” he said.

Showalter capped his somewhat dismissive characterization of the Tebow news with an offhanded, “I bet he was a good player in high school. I was too.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.