Pompey and Travis in Blue Jays heaven
Second baseman especially overjoyed at making the big club
DUNEDIN, FLA.
At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dalton Pompey was sitting in an empty locker, resting his butt on the bottom shelf as he talked quietly with Devon Travis at the adjacent cubicle. It was crunch time. Each was waiting for a summons to the manager’s office.
Pompey, the Canadian, and Travis, the Floridian, had formed a fast friendship when they met in June 2013 as teammates at the Midwest League All-Star Game in Dayton, Ohio.
“I just liked him a lot,” Travis recalled. “I thought he was going to be a really good player. He was really young then. I kept in touch with him ever since. Whenever he’d struggle or something was going on, I’d always shoot him a text and say, ‘Hey, keep going. You’re gonna be all right.’ ”
Over the past few weeks, Pompey returned the favour. Both are still really young — Pompey is 22, Travis 24 — but in relative terms, Pompey is the major-league veteran. The native of Mississauga, Ont., has played in all of 17 games with the Toronto Blue Jays. Travis has never played a game above Double-A. In that context, it figured that Travis was the one who was sick to his stomach at 5 a.m., which is the time his nervous metabolism and anxious mind had awakened him for the past week as cut-down day approached.
Pompey often uses “self-talk” to calm his own anxieties, and on Monday night, he was at it again.
“I was just telling myself just to relax,” he said. “This stuff is out of my control. I did everything that I could to prove to the team that I belong here. Whatever decision they made, I have to honour it and then just go do my thing. I think that helped me rest a little bit easier. But I know it wasn’t the same for Devon.”
Shortly after their chat, it was the same for both of them. Congratulations, said GM Alex Anthopoulos and manager John Gibbons. You’ve made the team.
“This is the best day of my life,” said Travis, his eyes moist. “It’s pretty incredible.”
In exhibition games this spring, Pompey is batting .333 (18-for-54) and Travis .351 (20-for-57). Their selection as the Jays’ starting centre-fielder and second baseman came as no surprise, although each refused to make assumptions.
Travis entered camp without a guaranteed roster spot. The centre-field job was Pompey’s to lose.
Where Pompey, seasoned veteran that he is, seemed almost placid about it all, Travis was overwhelmed. An affable, unpretentious young man with a quick smile, he left the manager’s office in a state of giddy relief.
“All my feelings beforehand all just left me,” he said. “It was really the greatest news I could ever hear.” On Nov. 12, the Jays acquired Travis in a trade for Anthony Gose. Shortly thereafter, Pompey called Travis from a bus in Arizona. Pompey and his teammates were on their way back from a fall league game.
“He’s a great kid,” Travis said. “As soon as I got traded, he was one of my first phone calls welcoming me to the team. Told me how excited he was.”
Told him too that they should share accommodation in spring training and promised to introduce Travis around and help him adjust to his new environs.
Each has much to prove in the big leagues — everything, in fact. But Pompey says he feels grounded as he starts the season because he got his feet wet last September on the big stage in his hometown.
“I think it helped tremendously,” he said. “I’m really grateful for that opportunity, not only to get called up but to play last year. I’m obviously going to be nervous for opening day and to get the season going. But there’s no stress. I know what to expect. “