TORONTO -- While he’s on the injured list working his way back from a left oblique strain, George Springer has been filling in as the Blue Jays’ substitute geography teacher.
In the second inning of Monday’s 6-2 win over the Rangers, the broadcast caught Springer drawing in the dirt near the Blue Jays’ dugout steps with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. looking on intently, his blue hair spilling down over his sunglasses.
Jonathan Davis was at the dish, so Gurriel had a question.
“This is the true story. Lourdes was asking where Arkansas was. That is a true story,” Springer said Tuesday. “That is not made up. He asked me where Jonathan Davis was from, and I said, ‘He’s from Arkansas,’ and Lourdes was trying to remember where Arkansas was because he says he’s very proud of knowing where the states are.”
Davis was born in Camden, Ark., and attended the University of Central Arkansas. Springer was born in Connecticut, where he also stayed to play high school and NCAA baseball. But he started to carve out Arkansas and the states around it in the dirt.
“After he asked about where Arkansas was, he said, ‘If you’re going to be from here, where do you want to be to play baseball?’” Springer continued. “I actually thought that was a really great question. I didn’t have an answer for him.”
Any time the camera pans across the Blue Jays' dugout, there’s conversation. Gurriel, one of the team's most engaging personalities, is typically in the middle of it, too. There’s bound to be conversation, given the three-plus hours these players are in action every night and the countless hours they spend together training and socializing outside of games. Often, they’re breaking down the pitcher on the mound, but not every time.
Since Springer arrived, he has made a point of saying that it’s his job to mesh with the Blue Jays and his new teammates, not the other way around. He’s eager to get back from the 10-day IL, and he is eligible to do so on Thursday, when the Blue Jays return to Dunedin, Fla., for their home opener at TD Ballpark against the Angels.
“This is a clubhouse that I’m being brought into. Like I’ve said, it’s my job to earn their respect and to insert myself the way I see fit into the clubhouse and into the culture that they’ve already established,” Springer said. “It’s been fun to sit back and watch the guys make fun of each other, or however they like to interact.”