New York Mets outfielder Tim Tebow expressed his gratefulness for being allowed to play for the Philippine national team.
“Grateful and excited to play for team Philippines in the @WBCbaseball,” said Tebow on Twitter.
Tebow, who was born in the Philippines while his parents were served as Baptist missionaries, said he is serious in intent to see action for the Philippines in the upcoming World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Tucson in Arizona.
He recalled the time when he spent his first three years in Manila, before the young Tebow was sent back to the United States.
During their stay in the Philippines, his mother Pamela contracted amoebic dysentery and fell into a coma.
Reports said that while Pamela was recovering, she discovered that she was pregnant and the medications used to treat Pamela caused a severe placental abruption.
Doctors expected a stillbirth and recommended an abortion, which was illegal in the Philippines even in severe cases, but the Tebows decided against it.
Tebow became a starting quarterback for National Football League club Denver Broncos, turned to baseball in 2016, and won the coveted Heisman trophy back in college when he was still into American football.
While playing baseball, Tebow appeared in 77 games for the Syracuse Mets—the Triple-A affiliate of New York Mets—in 2019, earning an invitation to the Major League spring training camp.
Tebow, who is married to 2017 Miss Universe Demi-Leigh Nel Peters, said that the Philippines is close to his heart. He will be around when the Philippines competes for one of two spots in the 2021 World Baseball Classic from March 20 to 25.
The Philippines has been drawn into Pool Two along with Czech Republic, Great Britain, New Zealand, Panama and Spain.
The family is known for setting up charities since the 1980s in Davao City, through Tebow patriarch Bob, such as the Tebow CURE Hospital, which provides pediatric orthopedic surgical care in Davao City, and the Uncle Dick’s Home orphanage in South Cotabato.