Take  down the tents and load up the elephants: The circus is moving on to New York.

On Wednesday, after a week of stalling, I wrote a blog saying if the Braves signed Tim Tebow, it would be more to generate revenue and stir misguided fan frenzy in their minor-league system than it would be for baseball reasons. Because ... there were no legitimate baseball reasons.

This morning we learned that Tebow will sign a minor-league deal with the New York Mets.   Seems so right. So that ends that. Mercifully.

But I have a quick question before moving on to real news later today. Does it strike you at all that Tebow has become "Sideshow Tim"?

When Tebow played quarterback at Florida, he was one of the greatest college football players any of us had ever seen (understanding the nausea that statement causes in Athens). He was a dreadful NFL quarterback and never should have been expected to be great, given his skill set, but he got people excited and teammates liked him and he was earnest in his attempt to succeed.

Then "Sideshow Tim" was born.

When Tebow could not get another NFL team to look at him -- though he gave it a nice run with stops in Denver, New York (Jets), New England (preseason) and Philadelphia (preseason) -- he had two choices: continue trying to play football or go into a lucrative career of just being Tim Tebow (broadcasting, speaking, raising money for personal causes).

If Tebow was serious about football, he could have easily landed a contract in the Canadian Football League or the Arena Football League. But he passed.

Now, almost 12 years after having last played organized baseball, he decides to take up the sport again?

Can the, "Sideshow Tim Reality Show," be that far away? I can understand a former pro athlete's need to scratch that competitive itch. But this whole baseball exercise strikes me more as publicity for his foundation or whatever his next venture may be. Or even just, "Look at me."

Maybe he should change his last name to Kardashian.

Recen t ramblings

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