Tim Tebow took a moment out of his time on-deck to greet an autistic fan trying to get his attention, and then the NFL-quarterback-turned-minor-leaguer punctuated the moment by smacking a three-run homer just seconds later.
Tebow’s decision to try his hand at baseball was dismissed by many as a publicity stunt at first, but his steady hitting at the lowest levels of the New York Mets farm system has silenced most of his critics. And to top off his better-than-expected play on the field, Tebow seems to have a flair for the dramatic.
Case in point was a game on July 29 this year. Tebow’s St. Lucie Mets were hosting the Charlotte Stone Crabs when a young boy named Seth Bosch made his way to the fence behind home plate, where Tebow was stretching and taking some practice swings in the on-deck circle.
Seth’s mom, Ileanna, was filming video as her son walked down near the field in an attempt to meet his favorite player, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Seth started to wave for Tebow to come over, and the outfielder actually took a moment out of his at-bat preparations to say hello and shake the boy’s hand, drawing a cheer from the crowd.
As the Tampa Bay Times noted, Seth isn’t just any ordinary fan. The 10-year-old (who was 9 at the time the video was filmed) has high-functioning autism and suffers from a genetic disorder known as neurofibromatosis that produces tumors on his nerve tissue.
After his brief meeting with Tebow, Seth was so overcome by emotion that he started to cry.
“When Seth came back to his seat, he was crying,” Ileanna Bosch said.
What happened next made Ileanna start to cry as well. As Tebow stepped up to the plate, he blasted an opposite-field home run, all caught on Ileana’s amazing video.
. @TimTebow stops warming up to shake autistic fan’s hand, follows it up with home run https://t.co/KjPcbAjAFo pic.twitter.com/mjPHQ4Oh9l
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 10, 2017
“And then Tim hit the homer. I started crying, to,” she recalled. “How does that happen? I think God brought Seth and Tim together.”
. @TimTebow hit a home run after greeting a @stluciemets fan with autism in the on-deck circle. https://t.co/R50A5KD6pd pic.twitter.com/KNSTi07Pmi
— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 10, 2017
WATCH: Tim Tebow greets autistic boy from on-deck circle, proceeds to crush home run https://t.co/WYWi70MAXs #GatorNation pic.twitter.com/Ev6s0Ej5Tp
— SEC Country Florida (@SECCountryUF) August 10, 2017
Though the game took place more than a week ago — and Tim Tebow has since gone into something of a late-summer slump — the video went viral this week after Ileanna shared it and discussed the moment with local media. The video has already garnered millions of views online and the story has been featured on news outlets across the country, including one of the top stories on the New York Post .
[Featured Image by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
