Today is the day that Tim Tebow tries to make his return to the world of baseball for the first time since he was in high school a full decade back. And yes, the Red Sox will be one of the 20 teams in attendance because...why not, I guess?
On a personal level, I can think of a few good reasons. I'm not exactly a fan of Tebow, but even moreso than that I'm not a fan of the oversized media circus that follows him around because he was once very good at college football. Not many other failed first-round picks draw quite so much attention unless they're hanging around their alma mater.
But none of that should matter all that much to anyone in Fenway, at least not any more than any other fan's opinion. For every fan that doesn't like Tebow, there's another who does. At the end of the day, that all balances out, and you're just left with Tim Tebow living or dying on his athletic merits.
The word "athletic" is the key there, because Tim Tebow is not trying to show teams he's a good baseball player. He isn't. He hasn't had the experience to be one, and likely won't even match up all that well to good high school players at the moment simply because of how long its been since he's played consistently. And that certainly represents a problem for Tebow when you consider that, at 29, he doesn't have that many truly athletic years left in him, at least by MLB standards.
Still, this is a guy who NFL teams wanted to move around into various non-quarterback roles just because of his physical abilities. If this was 10-or-so years ago, Tebow could be the sort of raw prospect that teams are willing to use high picks on. There is some chance that he gets up to speed reasonably quickly and, if he actually has the talent for the sport (football and baseball certainly require different skills to succeed), manages to make a short career out of this.
Of course, the odds that Tebow pulls it off are not significantly greater than any other particularly athletic 29-year-old. The reason he's getting this much attention is simply because he's Tim Tebow, and likely as much for marketing purposes as anything else, that makes teams pay attention. That's also probably why, if anyone makes Tebow a (standard minor league) offer, it will most likely be a team with some connection to his NCAA past like the Rays or Marlins. But it costs the Red Sox very little to have someone in attendance, so they'll cover that base, and then likely move on along with the rest of the world.