An interview with a former baseball scout revealed something that Florida Gators fans knew all along; Tim Tebow has what it takes to be an angel, or at least a Los Angeles Angel, according to WEEI.
Tom Kotchman, a scout with the Boston Red Sox who formerly worked in the Angels organization, told the Boston area radio station that the newest Patriot was on his radar well before he was on Bill Belichick's.
"We wanted to draft him but he never sent back his information card," Kotchman said. "Either it never got to him, or...It's Tim Tebow. Who knows if it got to him, and if it did we just never got it back. Otherwise we were going to take him."
It turns out that Tebow was not only a great football player in high school but also quite the slugger. The future quarterback hit a whopping .494 his junior year of high school. Tebow decided to quit playing baseball his senior year in order to focus on football, according to USA Today.
Stephen Hargett, another Red Sox scout who was employed by the Angels at the time Tebow was in high school, told WEEI that the Angels were interested in Tebow for the same reason the Patriots picked him up; his arm.
"He had a strong arm and a lot of power," Hargett said. "If he would have been there his senior year he definitely would have had a good chance to be drafted. He had leverage to his swing. He had some natural loft. He had some good power. He was a good athlete. He had enough arm for that position. He was a left-handed hitter with strength and some size."
One of the last times Tebow threw a baseball in public things did not go exactly as planned; he bounced a ceremonial first pitch in front of the catcher. What he did next impressed Kotchman as much as his arm had.
"He immediately asked the catcher to get it, throw it back so he could do it again," Kotchman said. "He wanted to make sure he did it right."
It's still uncertain if Tebow will make the final roster for the Patriots and there weren't many other NFL teams interested in him while he was a free agent. So, perhaps a return to left field could be in store for Tebow if things don't work out in Foxboro?
