BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Before the minor league season started here, a local news anchor asked a sports reporter if one of the new players on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies was a good baseball player.
“No, not really,” the reporter said.
The player in question is an anomaly. His talent on the field is beside the point. He is Tim Tebow, a former Heisman Trophy winner and N.F.L. quarterback whose celebrity transcends sports. A lot of people seem interested in whatever he’s doing, whether it’s football, baseball, canasta or pick-up sticks.
Before he played in his first game last month for the Rumble Ponies — the Mets’ Class AA affiliate — Binghamton had a touch of Tebow fever.
Downtown businesses had perked up, counting on an influx of new customers. There were Tebow-theme menu items, like Beer Tree Brew Co.’s Tebow Time I.P.A., served at Craft Bar and Kitchen, and an array of Tebow-inspired sandwiches elsewhere. Local churches have coveted his presence.
Tebow briefly put the focus on baseball when he launched the first pitch of his first at-bat over the right-center-field wall at NYSEG Stadium in front of 5,247 fans, the most to attend a home opener here in nearly 25 years, despite near-freezing temperatures.
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