CLEARWATER — It was about three weeks ago. A Saturday night. I sat behind home plate at a Charlotte Stone Crabs game at Charlotte Sports Park. There was a professional baseball scout sitting just behind me with a speed gun in his hand. He had seen the whole thing.
Tim Tebow walked over from the St. Lucie Mets on-deck circle during the seventh inning of a game to shake hands with 10-year-old Seth Bosch, who had been calling to Tebow. They touched hands through the backstop. Seth, who is from Punta Gorda, has high-functioning autism. He walked away crying. Tebow walked to the plate and hit a home run. Seth's mother, Ileanna, filmed the encounter and the home run. The video would go viral.
The scout looked at me.
"Right on cue, he hits it out," he told me. "How do you get something like that in a scouting report? You can't make this stuff up."
You can't make up Tim Tebow.
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He ends his eight-day tour through Tampa Bay Thursday night in Clearwater. He has touched lives as he has made his way through minor league baseball. It's what the man does. The stories, like the one from Port Charlotte about Seth and the home run, seem to fall from the heavens.
Like the story last Saturday, the one about Jillian Joyce, a 27-year-old woman from Lutz with cerebral palsy. Jillian sang God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at Steinbrenner Field, where Tebow's Mets were playing the Tampa Yankees. Jillian asked her new friend, Tim Tebow, to stand by her side as she sang. He did.
You can't make this stuff up.
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We're talking about Seth and Jillian, but we could be talking about any of the thousands of lives affected directly or indirectly by Tebow, going back to his high school days, then Florida days, then NFL days and now his baseball days.
We could talk about the Tim Tebow Foundation, founded in 2010. Among other things, it reaches out to children and young adults battling illnesses and those with special needs. There's the foundation's W15H program (for Tebow's No. 15), which makes wishes come true for children.
There are the foundation's annual "Night to Shine" proms held for people with special needs. Red carpets, gowns and tuxedos are provided - special evenings. There will be one held in Tampa next year on Feb. 9. "Night to Shine" events were held in 550 locations last year, in all 50 states, 11 countries and six continents. Jillian has attended a couple of them.
And there is the "Timmy's Playroom" about to be constructed at Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa, joining 10 other playrooms around the country, all customized with a football theme, for children fighting illnesses.
Back to Jillian and Seth.
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Jillian's mother, Lillian Reyes-Joyce, sees the oldest of her three children as an "angel." Jillian has that light around her. She has battled physical and mental handicaps her entire life. Besides cerebral palsy, she has Tourette's. I go to the same church as the Joyces. I can hear Jillian singing.
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Explore all your optionsThrough a family friend, Robert Malloy, a grandson of the late George Steinbrenner, Jillian sang the national anthem before a Tampa Yankees game last season. When Tebow and the Mets came through Tampa, Malloy helped arrange for Jillian to sing God Bless America. Jillian kept asking her parents if she could meet Tim Tebow.
She could. And she did.
Through other friends, the Alley family, which knows Tebow, a meeting was arranged before last Saturday's game, underneath the stands at Steinbrenner Field.
"He did it out of the kindness of his heart," Lillian said. "He just kept talking and talking. He was in no hurry. Hugs and pictures. There's one of Jillian looking up at him that's just so beautiful."
When it came time to sing, Jillian was accompanied onto the field by her father, Bob. Jillian can walk, but has trouble with her balance. And she isn't pitch perfect anymore because of some hearing problems. But she knew what she wanted. She asked if Tim could stand with her.
He could. And he did.
God bless.
"I love Tim Tebow a lot," Jillian said.
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The same goes for Seth.
I spotted him during the game in Port Charlotte, the kid in the oversized headphones. Noise isn't easy on Seth's ears. He gets scared. And the park was jammed.
But he wanted to meet Tebow.
Ileanna Bosch told you about Seth. He is autistic and suffers from neurofibromatosis, which produces tumors along the nervous system. Coordination and balance are a problem for Seth. He can't play sports. Seth has a tumor behind his right eye. But he has a way with people, Ileanna said.
"Most autistic children can't be around people," Ileanna said. "And he gets stage fright and stuff. He won't look in the camera for picture. But he has a gift. He brings people together."
And so, it was that Seth wandered down from the seats his family had behind home plate. There was a conference on the pitching mound for Port Charlotte. Tebow took practice swings in the on-deck circle. But he kept looking back at the young boy calling to him. Tebow said later that he sensed something different about Seth. He walked over and said a few words. Seth put his hands against the netting. Tebow's fingers shook Seth's fingers. A special moment.
And then he hit a home run.
"When Seth came back to his seat, he was crying," Ileanna Bosch said. "And then Tim hit the homer. I started crying, too. How does that happen? I think God brought Seth and Tim together."
"He's my friend," Seth said of Tebow.
A few nights later, the Bosch family returned. Tebow met with them before the games. Hugs and pictures. Tebow signed a baseball for Seth.
The night Tebow homered, Ileanna put the video of Tebow and Seth's encounter on her Facebook page. After the game, the family swung by Arby's for a late snack. The woman at the drive-through took one look at Seth. She had already seen the video.
"Hey, were you the little boy who stuck his hand through the fence before Tebow hit the homer?"
And Seth was a rock star.
"Maybe I was supposed to hit that home run," Tebow said.
You can't make this stuff up.
Contact Martin Fennelly at mfennelly@tampabay.com or (813) 731-8029. Follow @mjfennelly