It is officially “Tebow Time” for the New York Mets organization as Tim Tebow begins his baseball career at the Mets’ instructional league this week.

This is quite the change for a guy who won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and went on to play quarterback in the NFL for multiple years. The former football phenomenon has switched sports and has everyone talking.

Is this just a publicity stunt? Did they just sign him for marketing benefits and to increase ticket sales? Well, the Mets General Manager, Sandy Alderson, tried to clear things up with a statement.

“While I and the organization are mindful of the novel nature of this situation, this decision was strictly driven by baseball.” Alderson said.  “It is not driven by marketing considerations or anything sort.”

Tebow responded to doubters.

“This isn’t a publicity stunt, and it’s definitely not for money. This is a pay cut for me to do this. I understand how hard this is and that a lot of people think it’s impossible,” Tebow said. “But [I am] passionate about the game of baseball. I love it, and I want to pursue it.”

This is genuinely a guy who is trying to chase his dreams. Tebow hung up the baseball cleats back in 2005 after a phenomenal season where he hit .494 as a junior and was named to the all-state team in Florida.

He has been training throughout the entire last year in Arizona and Los Angeles to try and get that skill back.

“The goal is to one day play in the bigs,” Tebow said. That’s a stretch for someone who has been out of the game for so long, but he is extremely athletic, committed and very competitive.

Monday was Tebow’s first day as a pro baseball player. He took the field in Port St. Lucie, Florida with nearly 600 fans and 70 media members in attendance. Many fans were wearing his jersey and waiting for autographs.

On day two, only about 250 fans and 30 media members were in attendance and that is when Tebow was allowed to focus more of his attention on just being a baseball player. He had a lot more interaction with coaches, looked more relaxed and had three impressive practice rounds at the plate, which included a homerun over the right-field fence on his second-to-last swing.

Tebow has the MLB world’s attention. As of Tuesday, the number one seller on MLB’s online store was the Tebow men’s jersey and the second biggest was the Tebow replica T-shirts.

Now it’s time to just wait and see how he performs. There are several professional baseball players and MLB fans upset with all the attention Tebow is drawing to himself with his shift in sports.

But Tebow responded with a simple quote.

“I don’t have to live my life based on how other people want me to live my life,” he said.