MLB Pitcher Lives in a Walmart Parking Lot

Toronto Blue Jays’ pitcher Daniel Norris is anything but pretentious.

While his Major League Baseball counterparts roll into Florida each year in flashy sports cars and trucks, Norris travels his own path in a 1978 Volkswagen van that also serves as his spring training home, according to CBS News.

Despite his $2 million signing bonus, the left-hander from Tennessee prefers to keep his head out of the clouds by living in the van during training. That van, CBS reports, is kept parked behind a local Walmart somewhere near the team’s Dunedin spring training home.

“I’ve gotten used to people staring,” Norris told ESPN.

Norris has become such a fixture at the store employees have dubbed him “Van Man,” ESPN noted.

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The van’s not just for show either. It serves as his home away from home with a portable stove for meals on the go. Norris reportedly bought the van for $10,000 and hangs onto it to enable an escape from the pressures of MLB life.

“I’m not going to change who I am just because people think it’s weird,” he told ESPN. “The only way I’m going to have a great season is by starting out happy and balanced and continuing to be me. It might be unconventional, but to feel good about life I need to have some adventure.”

A great season is precisely what the Jays are hoping for out of Norris. He debuted last September and led the minor leagues in strikeouts per nine innings last season, CBS noted. With a 92 mph fastball and his first spring training game producing 1 2/3 scoreless innings, he may well be on his way to earning a spot in the Jays’ rotation.

The Jays play at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, 373 Douglas Ave., in Dunedin. For more information on upcoming home games, check out the team’s website.

Image from Twitter

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