Tim Tebow Suffers Hand Injury, Will Be Out 'for as Long as It Takes to Heal'
Tim Tebow’s dream of making it to the major leagues suffered a setback Sunday.
The former Heisman Trophy winner, who plays left field for the New York Mets’ Triple-A team in Syracuse, cut his hand while fielding a ball during a game against the Toledo Mud Hens in Ohio.
Tebow walked to the infield with blood running from his hand.
On Tuesday, he was placed on the seven-day injured list.
Syracuse Mets manager Tony DeFrancesco said Tebow needed eight stitches to close the cut, Syracuse.com reported.
“He’ll be out for as long as it takes to heal, get back on track. It’s just kind of in an awkward spot between his index finger, his ring finger and pinkie,” DeFrancesco said.
Tebow was also injured last year while assigned to the Mets’ Double-A team in Binghamton when he broke a bone in his right hand.
So far this year, Tebow is hitting .163 with four home runs and 19 RBIs. He got off to a bad start but had improved of late, batting .205 in July until his injury laid him low.
“He had a couple ups and downs. He actually had a pretty good month going,” DeFrancesco said. “Unfortunately, that [an injury] is part of the game. He’ll still hopefully have three weeks left when he comes back, and we’ll see how he finishes.”
In May, while struggling to put together the kind of numbers that might get him to the majors, Tebow talked about why he keeps trying, USA Today reported.
“It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it seems. That’s something I learned a long time ago in sports. I didn’t do it for the praise of it. I did it because it was a passion, and I wanted to fulfill it and do something that I love,” said the 31-year-old.
Tebow said his baseball career is a process.
“You’re always trying to do good and the best you can. I don’t think I put extra pressure on myself to do better because more people would show up. It’s about having patience, following a process and really, truly trying to improve every day. Not just focusing on just what happens in the game and results of it,” he said.
During an interview earlier this year with Faithwire, Tebow said challenges help all people better understand what is important.
“I think sometimes having things at our fingertips can make us spoiled to things and think that we have everything when all this stuff isn’t that much, actually. It’s understanding what really is meaningful,” he said.
“The race isn’t always just about winning — and you’re talking to a very competitive person who likes winning a lot,” Tebow said. “But running the race in life isn’t about just the more we have, the stuff we have, the accomplishments we have. It’s who we are as we’re running and what are we running after.”
Tebow said it is often not people who direct their lives, but God.
“Sometimes God opens a door and he closes other ones and it’s trying to walk by faith in the midst of it when we don’t always know it. There were times when I thought, ‘OK, God, this is gonna be cool. Let’s just go win a few Super Bowls and it’ll be great,’” Tebow said.
When God “closed that door,” he said, it was “disappointing” but led to something better.
“It’s understanding that it’s not always gonna be perfect, but through the trials and tribulations, our faith is tested and we gain endurance and God uses so much of that to build our faith and to encourage us, but also we can see that he’s with us in the highs and in the lows,” Tebow said.
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