the excuses, if not the actual skills.Afterward, he t

Former NFL quarterback and current ESPN broadcaster Tim Tebow is actively pursuing a career in professional baseball and plans to hold a workout for Major League Baseball teams later this month, according to his agents Jimmy Sexton and Nick Khan.For almost the past year, Tebow has been training in Arizona and Los Angeles to hone his hitting and fielding skills in a sport he has not played on a full-time basis since 2005.Tebow was an all-state baseball player in Florida that year and hit .494 as a junior, helping Nease High School reach the final four of the Florida state playoffs.Obviously we support Tim in his pursuit of a baseball career, as we have in all his ventures, said Sexton, Tebows football agent, who is now working with CAA baseball agent Brodie Van Wagenen.Tims athletic ability, his work ethic, his leadership and his competitiveness were evident in football and will show in baseball. Knowing Tims passion and desire, we wont be surprised by anything he accomplishes.Tebow -- who will turn 29 on Sunday -- has notified his current employer, ESPN, of his desire to chase a baseball career, but he will continue to fulfill his broadcast obligations to the network.Tebow had a tryout with the Los Angeles Dodgers before this season, sources tell ESPNs Darren Rovell. A scout was present for the workout, and the team showed interest in Tebow afterward, the sources said.Orioles center fielder?Adam Jones?reacted to the news on Twitter:Former MLB catcher Chad Moeller said in a statement through Tebows agent,?I am beyond impressed with Tims athleticism and swing, and it goes without saying that he has shown a high level of discipline and strong work ethic. I see bat speed and power and real baseball talent. I truly believe Tim has the skill set and potential to achieve his goal of playing in the Major Leagues, and based on what I have seen over the past two months, it could happen relatively quickly.But a major league scouting director told ESPNs Jayson Stark on Tuesday: Eleven years [of not playing baseball], nobody can overcome that.Chicago Bears coach John Fox told ESPNs Jeff Dickerson on Tuesday, [When I coached him] he was very competitive and very dedicated to life. Hes a guy I was very, very impressed with. He also took us [the Broncos] to the playoffs and won a playoff game for us. [I enjoyed] being around him because he works extremely hard at whatever he does.Eric Decker, who played with Tebow in Denver, guaranteed that a minor league team will sign him.Ill just say if you havent played baseball for 10 years or however many years its been, I dont know what the chances are, but if I was a double-a or single-a team, Im signing him to get the ticket sales up, Decker said. Im sure hell have success in that field. But as far as the skill aspect, I think hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things so itll be interesting to see his progress.All 30 MLB teams will be invited to Tebows workout at the end of the month, an event he has been preparing for over the past year. Those who have seen Tebow hit have been surprised he picked up the sport so quickly after not playing it since high school.This may sound like a publicity stunt, but nothing could be further from the truth, Wagenen said in a statement through Tebows agent. I have seen Tims workouts, and people inside and outside the industry -- scouts, executives, players and fans -- will be impressed by his talent.In reaction to the news, the Schaumburg Boomers, an Illinois-based minor league team in the independent Frontier League, announced Tuesday that they have offered a Tebow a contract.?Football coaches had been aware of Tebows baseball prowess. One of Urban Meyers first encounters with Tebow was on the baseball field, and college coaches knew of the quarterbacks interest and talents in baseball.Now, with Tebows football career stalled, he has decided to pursue another one of the sports he excelled at in high school. Mavericks Jerseys China . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66. Custom Mavericks Jerseys . On June 12, just as the sun sets on the magnificent historical city of Sao Paulo the inventors, innovators and purveyors of “joga bonitowill” open their campaign. The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. 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I knew there was much more to it, but it wasnt until I got on a court with an Olympic gold medalist that I understood just what makes the sport so difficult: Its the sand itself -- slowing every step, cutting short every jump and conspiring with the beating sun to wear down even the fittest bodies.Or even one belonging to a fortysomething sports writer.During a professional tour event outside Cincinnati this spring, I had a chance to hit the ball around with two-time Olympian and 2008 gold medalist Todd Rogers. Aptly nicknamed The Professor, Rogers is the coach at Cal Poly, where he took over a team that had won one match in each of its previous two seasons and led it to an 11-12 record in his first year.This would prove to be an even bigger challenge.I gave Rogers and his teammate, Robbie Page, a ride over to the practice facility that was the warmup area for players in the AVP Cincinnati Open, the last American stop for the FIVB tour before the close of Olympic qualification. Page, at 7-feet tall, could barely avoid kissing his knees in my midsized rental car.Rogers asked if I had ever played volleyball before, and I told him I had hit the ball around enough to know what I was supposed to do, if not how to do it. But my limited experience in a gym class on a hardwood basketball court did not prepare me to play outdoors, on the sand.Rogers started out by just tossing the ball over the net to me, under-handed, and that proved easy enough; I was able to return a few serves back to him, and pass most others to where my partner would be waiting. Then he stepped back and lofted some easy serves in my direction, and I really figured out what makes the sport so challenging.First there was the movement of the ball, which from a skillful server comes in like a knuckleball in baseball, darting around and confounding any attempt to hit it squarely. The wind also plays a part; many times I thought I had the balll lined up, only to see it drift off course.ddddddddddddThe hardest part, though, proved to be just moving around.While I lacked the spatial judgment and reaction time of the elite athletes on the courts next to me, even when I correctly determined where to go to hit the ball it just took me too long to get there. I seemed to be moving in slow motion in the 16-inch layer of sand, like in those movies where the sound didnt quite sync up with the actors lips.As Rogers began to speed up his serves -- though still closer to batting practice than full-speed -- more often than not the ball would bounce past me for an ace or, if I was lucky, carom wildly off my increasingly reddening forearms onto a nearby court.On one serve, I didnt even bother. Instead, I watched the ball bounce off the sand a few feet away, turned back to Rogers and said: That was my partners. (This is an old stand-by in beach volleyball, so common it has a name: The husband and wife.)My only problem: I didnt have a partner.Still, Rogers was impressed at how quickly I was picking up the excuses, if not the actual skills.Afterward, he told me some of the things I was doing wrong.Although much of it was due to physical shortcomings, I was also awaiting the serves with my hands together, ready to pass. A pro -- actually, pretty much everyone -- knows that its easier to move with his arms free and only lock them when the ball clears the net. (Young players who make this mistake are often told to run laps around the court with their hands locked, to remind them how much more difficult it is.)I thanked Rogers for the lesson and wished him luck in the tournament. Later that day, I bumped into him back at the venue, where a fan was hoping for a picture with him. I offered to take it.Youre really doing it all, he said, running through the tasks he had witnessed that day: Driver, writer, photographer.And beach volleyball player, too, I reminded him.Nah, he said, better leave that off the list.---Jimmy Golen has covered Olympic beach volleyball for The Associated Press since 2008. You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen. ' ' '