When you write a feature like the one I did on Devon Travis for the June 8 issue of Sportsnet magazine, you talk to a lot of people and hear a lot of stories. Unfortunately, they only give you so many pages and so many words, meaning a lot of cool details and anecdotes don’t make the final cut. Luckily, we have the internet where words, space and the ability to burn time is limitless. So it is here that I present you with 10 random bits of Devon Travis reportage that didn’t make it into my story.
Travis travelled all over the United States when he was playing travel ball in his youth, going everywhere from California to Pennsylvania. But at 23, he’d never left the country and didn’t even have a passport when the Blue Jays acquired him this winter. He applied for one two days after he was traded.
Mike Martin has been the head coach of Florida State’s baseball program for 35 years, which means he’s seen an awful lot of players come through his clubhouse. But two of them stand out. “Devon reminded me a lot of Buster Posey in the way that he came to practice. Every single day you knew what you were getting from Posey and Travis,” Martin says. “Let’s put it this way: I get up in the morning and I look at the boxscores for Travis and Posey. Then I look at everybody else. Those two guys are special.”
When Travis turned 16 his parents surprised him with a rather sizable birthday present—a Texas orange hummer. He loved the truck to bits and drove it everywhere he went, until partway through college when he got sick of paying the price to fuel up such an inefficient vehicle and sold it. “You always knew that Devon was in the house when you’d drive into the parking lot and see that tank,” Martin says. “Seeing this little guy climbing up into such a big hummer—it was something else.”
Devon Travis might not even be the best athlete in his family. His brother, Jordan, took more to football instead of baseball, and was able to throw a football 60 yards when he was just 12. He’s now 15 and a freshman in high school who’s already drawing interest from NCAA colleges. He’s 6-foot-2, faster than his older brother, and can dunk a basketball with ease. “He’s a special kid. He’s some kinda athlete. I go watch that kid play and it’s like, ‘who the hell is this kid?’” Travis says. “Whatever that athlete gene is, he’s got it. And I got robbed on the height.”
Undersized and overlooked, a 21-year-old Travis was drafted in 2012 in the 13th round by the Detroit Tigers during his third year at Florida State University. But he almost didn’t turn pro. Travis had made a pledge to himself that if he wasn’t selected in the first ten rounds, he’d return for his senior year at Florida State. There was still a week left in the college season when he was drafted and Travis was enjoying it so much that he told everyone in his life (and representatives for the Tigers) he was going back to school. It was a done deal. But three days after the end of the season, Travis started to have second thoughts. The Tigers offered him a $200,000 bonus, which helped. But he also realized he’d grown shortsighted. “It was always my dream to play in the majors. I was so caught up in how awesome college was; once I stepped back from it I realized leaving was the right decision,” Travis says. “Maybe if I went back to school and had a good year I would’ve gotten drafted higher, who knows. But I’d be a year older and a year behind everyone else. If you want to play in the bigs, you’ve gotta get in that system and get rolling. It ended up being a really good decision.”
Also weighing on his mind was Travis’ desire not to disappoint his parents, who put a strong emphasis on education when he was growing up. Once, in grade 9, Travis came home with a report card of straight A’s save for one lone B. He earned a week’s grounding for it. So when Travis told his parents he’d had a change of heart and was leaning towards leaving school for the pros, they agreed to support him—with one stipulation. “We were very tough on Devon academically, because he’s so smart,” Tammy Travis, Devon’s mother, says. “We were always supportive of whatever he chose. But he made a promise that he would get his degree someday. I told him, you always need a back-up plan. There’s no guarantees in baseball. Having a degree, at least you can go out into the world and find work. So, he’s going to get that degree that says Florida State one day. I’ll make sure of it.”
Travis knew coming into 2015 spring training that he would be in an open competition for the Blue Jays starting second base job with a number of players, including Ryan Goins. So it was much to Travis’ surprise when his phone went off a few days before camp with a Twitter Direct Message from Goins introducing himself and offering his phone number. Goins told Travis he was looking forward to working with him and that if the Blue Jays rookie ever needed anything, all he needed to do was ask. “Little things like that go a long way, especially when you’re the new guy,” Travis says. “You feel welcome. Ryan’s a really good dude. And a good teammate.” Of course, Travis ended up winning the job. But in the process of competing for it, Goins became one of Travis’ closest friends on the team. “That’s the beauty of this game,” Travis says. “I was rooting for the guy. He had a great spring. We were pushing each other along the whole way. We just kept telling each other, ‘hey, keep it going, keep it going.’ And it’s crazy how through competition and going to battle with a guy for the same position, you can end up becoming pretty good friends.”
Walking into your first big league spring training, especially with a brand new team you’ve just been traded to, is an uneasy experience. You don’t know anyone; you don’t know what to expect. But Travis found the Blue Jays clubhouse to be a welcoming atmosphere. One of the first players to come up to him and introduce himself was Steve Tolleson, another one of the players he’d be competing for an infield job with. “He approached me and said, ‘hey, I’m Steve. Nice to meet you, Devon,” Travis says. “Like, he knew my name and everything. I was a little taken aback. I was like, ‘wait, no, that’s not how this works. I’m Devon and you’re Steve. It’s nice to meet you.’
Blue Jays bench coach Demarlo Hale can be both a trusted mentor and tough authority figure for young players in the Blue Jays clubhouse. Travis found that out on his first day of spring training when he was the last player to board the bus that takes the Blue Jays from Florida Auto Exchange Stadium to the Bobby Mattick Training Center (Travis had no idea there even was a bus to report to until a few minutes before its departure). Hale was all over him, and Travis was on the bus ten minutes early for the rest of spring. “Oh yeah, he’s always giving me a hard time. He wears me out literally every single day,” Travis says of Hale. “But I know it’s all love. It keeps me loose, keeps me going. In this short time we’ve known each other, he’s become one of my favourite people I’ve met in this game. He’s a great guy. He has advice and wisdom for me every single day. It’s unbelievable.”
Travis started the year hitting ninth in the Blue Jays batting order, but quickly earned himself a promotion to the top of the lineup as he went on his early-season tear. That gave him the privilege of hitting in front of Josh Donaldson, a noted student of the game and hitting itself. Travis picks his brain throughout games and peppers Donaldson with questions in the clubhouse. “He’s really given me a boost. He’s on deck when I hit so he sees everything I do up close and personal,” Travis says. “I remember after one game when I went 0-for-4, I was really in a rut. He came up and was like ‘hey, it’s alright. Keep going. It’s baseball—it’ll happen.’ He’s always telling me little things he sees. For me, that’s an all-star right there. So having the opportunity to have him come to me and help me out, that’s so awesome. He’s a really smart dude. He’s so dang smart. “