A lot of people just became baseball fans out of the blue.

Tim Tebow, whose legion of fans is unmatched for an athlete who hasn’t played an NFL regular-season game since 2012, is going to try a career in baseball. He’s “actively pursuing” a baseball career and will work out for Major League Baseball teams later this month according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Didn’t see that coming, did you?

Tebow, who won a Heisman Trophy in 2007, was a first-round pick of the Denver Broncos and became an even bigger sensation during a crazy 2011 season with the Broncos, hasn’t played an NFL regular-season game since he was with the New York Jets in 2012. He has had some preseason tryouts, but when he was cut by the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the 2015 preseason it seemed to be his final shot in the NFL. So he’s turning to another sport.

Tebow is an exceptional athlete, but hasn’t played baseball since 2005 when he was in high school. He was an all-state baseball player after hitting .494 for Nease High School as a junior, ESPN said.

“Tim’s athletic ability, his work ethic, his leadership and his competitiveness were evident in football and will show in baseball. Knowing Tim’s passion and desire, we won’t be surprised by anything he accomplishes,” Tebow’s agent Jimmy Sexton told ESPN.

It would be fascinating if Tebow got a shot in pro baseball, though a lot is working against him. Namely, that he turns 29 years old on Aug. 14 and hasn’t played baseball in 11 years. He had been working as a broadcaster with the ESPN-owned SEC Network, and the ESPN story said he’ll continue to fulfill his obligations there even as he pursues baseball.

If a minor-league team wants to give its attendance a boost, well, there’s a clear path to that now.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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