The Jordan/Tebow effect: Athletes or celebrities who'd be humbled by the big leagues
Baseball is a game of failure. After all, it's a sport in which someone who fails seven out of 10 times with the bat is considered an elite hitter, while errors, walks and all sorts of other mistakes are so commonplace that we celebrate when players avoid them. This all to say that baseball is hard, as some prominent athletes and celebrities in other sports can attest.
Welcome to Yardbarker roundtable, where we're sure we'd look even worse than Tim Tebow has during his foray into baseball. Since hitting a baseball is often referred to as the most difficult thing to do in sports, it's unsurprising that even someone as athletically superior as Michael Jordan couldn't make it to the majors. And that got us thinking:
Call it the Jordan/Garth Brooks/Tebow effect: Which celebrity or two-sport athlete do you think would be humbled if he or she ever did make the pros in baseball, because we can’t all be like Bo?
Phillip Barnett: I'd love to see LeBron James play baseball. Not on anything malicious, because he'd struggle mightily at the plate, but after watching his chase-down blocks in the NBA for 13 seasons, I'd love to plop him in centerfield in Cleveland and watch him track down fly balls. And with his strength, you already know he'd have a cannon loaded to throw out any runners who tried him.
Shiloh Carder: Tony Romo. I think that should be Romo's next career choice. He could miss 15 games in baseball like he does in football, and it wouldn't be a big deal. Maybe he could play for the Texas Rangers so Jerry Jones can still be his buddy every day. His arm still works, and he won't have to worry about a pass rusher cracking his back anymore.
David Matthews: I've got to nominate Ohio governor John Kasich. Last week, he was asked how Congress could work together on smaller issues. Kasich said, "Don't expect Tebow to hit a home run; just get him on base." Kasich clearly has no idea what baseball is and needs to be taught a lesson about how Tim Tebow is an awful baseball player and should never be used in analogies.
Demetrius Bell: I love Neil deGrasse Tyson and believe that he's been a positive influence on society for a variety of reasons (if only because he's actually willing to publicly shame flat earth truthers), but anytime the man tweets about sports and tries to relate it to physics, it's cringe-worthy. Therefore, I'd relish seeing the man struggle to catch up with major league pitching at the plate. Let's see how your "logic and reason" help you hit a curveball, fella.
Jamie Neal: Donald Trump said he was the best baseball player in New York when he was younger. Please let Clayton Kershaw brush him off the plate and show him why he never made it past little league.
Matt Whitener: Considering he's already bailed on his first opportunity to embrace a specifically presidential honor and throw out the first pitch on Opening Day in the nation's capital, I would like to take the only time I could imagine voting for Donald Trump here. Without a doubt, that would be some of the greatest reality television of all time.
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