The Heisman Trophy winner turned Mets farmhand had a chance to be a hero in NY's spring training game Friday ... but instead, he tripped over his own shoes!!

The sad scene all went down in the Mets-Cardinals exhibition game ... where Tebow's squad was up 3-2 in the top of the ninth inning.

With two outs left in the game, Tim could've closed everything down by catching a lazy pop fly to left field -- but he fell to the ground before he could make the grab!!

The vid is pretty depressing ... Tim takes a solid route to the ball, camps underneath it, but then gets his feet tangled in his shoelaces and goes crashing to the grass.

SO CLOSE!!!

The ball landed just a few feet from him ... allowing the game-tying runner to advance to second base.

To make matters worse, Tebow -- the No. 9 hitter for the day -- was 0-for-2 on the afternoon with 2 strikeouts. YIKES!!!

Fortunately for the ex-NFL QB, the Mets were able to get the next batter to fly out to right to end the game ... but social media is already ROASTING poor Timmy for the effort!!

Of course, it hasn't been all bad news bears for Tebow this spring ... he just hit his first home run of camp earlier this week, but clearly, this ain't going to help make the Mets' opening day roster.