Is Mets prospect Tim Tebow an Atlanta Braves fan?

Tebow Mania is sweeping across the South Atlantic League as fans crowd into low-A stadiums along the east coast to get a look at the former Florida Gator.

Most baseball folks know that Tim Tebow is now playing in the New York Mets minor league system, but for players, staffs, fans and media members in towns with South Atlantic League farm teams, the disruption (good or bad) is far more noticeable.

Though most of the SAL teams play well within the borders of Braves Country, Tebow’s first trip to Atlanta low-A affiliate Rome was this week in a Monday through Wednesday series at State Mutual Stadium.

To start the series, the former Florida Gators (football) great was hitting below .200, but was averaging just shy of a run batted in per game and had a pair of home runs. The low average didn’t keep the fans or the media away, as even Fox Sports South sent an Atlanta Braves on-field crew up to Rome. To be fair, FSS does visit Rome once or twice a season anyway.

As the gaggle of media crowded around the former NFL first round draft pick for questions about stats, hitting and life in the minors compared to professional football, I used my question to inquire about a suspicion I’d had since Tebow’s name was being batted around as a possible Braves signee in the off-season.

This inquiring mind wanted to know only one thing: Was Tim Tebow an Atlanta Braves fan growing up?

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Jacksonville, Florida is well within earshot of the Braves Radio Network, and late-80’s born Tebow lived through the greatest period in the team’s history. He would have also caught the tail end of the TBS national Braves broadcast, and a good number of Florida’s residents that aren’t recent transients are still Atlanta fans.

Now a prospect of one of Atlanta’s arch rivals, the New York Mets, Tebow hesitated at first when asked the burning question, but then he went into even more detail than expected.

“Um… I was a Braves fan at times, yeah,” Tebow said. “Especially Chipper, being a Jacksonville Bolles [School] guy,” he continued, referring to the hometown connection between the two.

Tebow also said he grew up a fan of Maddux and Glavine. “Yeah, I was a Braves fan, but not as big as my brothers were,” saying that he also liked Frank Thomas and the White Sox. Tebow wrapped up his answer with another confirmation, saying “I liked the Braves, yeah.”

So New York’s most famous prospect grew up liking the Braves and Chipper Jones, who owned the Mets during his career, was his favorite Atlanta player… How will that answer be received by Mets fans? How will it be received by Braves fans? Likely a mixed bag.

What did the opposing Rome Braves think of Tebow Mania rolling into town?

“It brings a lot of excitement,” said Rome manager Randy Ingle after the first game of the series. “Seeing a packed house on a Monday night, you know, at State Mutual.. it’s good for our players to play in front of a packed house like that at home.”

“It was definitely weird, but a great experience and something I’ll probably remember a really long time,” Rome starter Bryse Wilson said of staring down Tim Tebow from the pitcher’s mound. “I just like the way he plays, the way he carries himself,” Wilson added.

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The Rome Braves have a pair of road trips to the Columbia Fireflies in the middle of the summer and are scheduled to host the “Fighting Tebows” to cap the regular season at home the first week of September.