Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman part of baseball’s fun, young generation

DUNEDIN, Fla.

The Blue Jays’ minor-league complex is about as remote as it gets, even by spring training standards. It’s a 10-minute drive from the team’s main stadium, a brief stretch past tattoo parlors and pawn shops, then a hard right behind an outdated condo village.

This is where Marcus Stroman will throw the longest outing of his March schedule, in what usually is considered the dress rehearsal for the regular season. That same morning, Jays manager John Gibbons made it public that Stroman will be his Opening Day starter, then sent him to a mound ringed by chain-link fences and aluminum benches and occasionally in the firing line of foul balls coming in like mortar rounds from adjacent fields.

Good thing Stroman travels with his own spotlight.

Wherever he goes, the former Patchogue-Medford High School star totes his 192,361 Twitter followers (@MStrooo6) and 259,000 more on Instagram. No wonder the back of his personalized Nike Jordan cap reads “STROSHOW,” the benefit of a newly inked deal signed weeks earlier with the shoe giant.

The Blue Jays boast the 2015 MVP in Josh Donaldson and the bat-flipping basher, Jose Bautista. But pound-for-pound, few players pack as much entertainment value as Stroman does into his 5-8 frame.

And that’s not something he unpacks only for Toronto’s Rogers Centre. Even on this minor-league mound, facing Double-A hitters, Stroman is operating at max levels — scolding himself, smiling after strikeouts. One victim gets pounded hard with fastballs, then nearly falls down swinging when Stroman cuts the throttle for an unhittable changeup.

The kid is laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of that pitch as he looks over at Stroman, who is grinning back at him. “That’s a big-league cambio, son,” Stroman says, using the Spanish word for change.

This is playground stuff. When the game actually is a game and it’s still fun. Stroman, 24, is among the sport’s new generation that wants baseball to reflect those feelings, to shake it free from the straitjacket it’s worn for the past century. Bryce Harper rekindled the debate this spring, saying that baseball needs to be jolted awake from its “tired” state. But few live those words as openly as Stroman, and he’s only getting warmed up.

“I have a big personality, so I always push myself no matter what,” he said. “I’m always going to be myself no matter what the situation is. So the fact that the game is getting younger, and you’re allowed to be yourself, it’s just more accommodating to the young players coming up. So I’m all for that.

“It’s baseball taking a little bit of a turn, getting out of the older ways. And I’m all for showing personality and emotion out there.”

Stroman isn’t limiting that to between the lines. He posts frequently on Twitter, and in a recent tweet, from Saturday, Stroman writes, “Yeah, I stay up late at night, thinkin’ bout my life, want a lot, will I get it all? #aintnotellin”

The flip side to showing personality, maybe the hazard of it, also means leaving yourself more exposed. A look-at-me generation that consumes social media like oxygen risks giving too much to people who will use it for more nefarious purposes.

Because once that personal snapshot is indeed out there, there’s no erasing the image, whether it’s the bat flip or the fashion spreads or the stable of customized cars.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Before Yoenis Cespedes even left the parking lot with that first Polaris Slingshot, people already were imagining the headlines if he went 0-for-20 in April. And the horses? What’s light-hearted amusement in March can turn into tabloid ammo come June, and that’s the danger involved when you remove the baseball blinders.

“I think you still have to go about your business the right way, and the way that works for you,” Matt Harvey said earlier this month. “But we do have other interests and like to do other fun things. And we’re a lot more than just baseball players.”

Before Cespedes, it was Harvey showing up at Madison Square Garden with a model on his arm for a Rangers game, or talking with The New York Times about shopping for cheese on the Lower East Side in between stops at John Varvatos. Harvey has marquee value along with a nasty wipeout slider, but the intersection of these two talents also can create friction among the public that scrutinizes players like him.

For as much as the media and the fans crave these behind-the-curtain glimpses of professional athletes, they easily can be used against them. As soon as they falter on the field, what they do outside the ballpark is viewed with a more critical eye, even if there really is no connection between the two. Would Cespedes paying $7,000 for a grand champion hog — in reality, a charitable donation — have any effect on a power drought in May? Of course not. But that won’t prevent the pig purchase from showing up in headlines should we see it happen.

BALANCING IT ALL

While Stroman is on the verge of supernova status in Toronto, it was one of his rotation-mates, R.A. Dickey, who became a multi-platform pioneer during his Mets tenure. In a two-year span, Dickey, now 41, released his autobiography, “Wherever I Wind Up,” had a documentary crew follow him around during the season for the film “Knuckleball!” and also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of human trafficking in India.

Dickey’s off-field portfolio extends far beyond a few Instagram posts. The Kilimanjaro journey even jeopardized his $4.25-million salary as the Mets’ front office threatened to void his contract over the trip. Once Dickey made it down from the African peak, however, he went on to win 20 games and the Cy Young Award.

“I had to hit it right,” Dickey said. “Because if I didn’t, everybody would make a comment about how I had a lot going on off the field and couldn’t take care of business. That’s the crucible we live in. So we have to say it is what it is — this is the risk. It might not drive you out of the game, like it would have back in the ’80s or ’90s. But you may face some ridicule, and are you OK with that?

“If you are, then you do things that you’re passionate about. The one thing I will say is that I never once, ever, felt like one thing ever interfered with the other. That was really important to me. If you feel like you have the constitution for it, you keep pushing. If you don’t, then you put it aside.”

What Dickey is referring to can apply to any number of extracurricular activities, be it mountain-climbing or car-collecting. Or even behavior between the lines, as the boundaries of baseball’s unwritten conduct rules get stretched more each season. And players such as Harper, Harvey and Stroman — to mention some of the more higher-profile names taking part in the movement — aren’t deterred by the risks involved with breaking new ground.

“Nah, I have zero worries,” Stroman said. “I know how hard I work. I know that a lot of people who are going to judge you are the people who aren’t working as hard as you. So when I put it all into perspective and realize how short life is, I honestly just truly enjoy every position that I’m in. Having fun is being able to show your personality, and that’s how I’m going to be, regardless of what anybody says.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.