“Eurotrip” thanks to baseball | The Journal of Montreal

It is much more common to see a Quebecer exile in Europe to play hockey. Sam Bélisle-Springer has taken advantage of his baseball pitching skills to play in France and Germany in recent months.

• Read also: It was important to my parents that I respect authority

From the start, during the interview via FaceTime, the spectacular mustache sported by the 27-year-old athlete from Rigaud, in Montérégie, sets the tone.

“It’s my French mustache,” he says, laughing.

Bélisle-Springer is in a good mood, even if the recent defeat of his team, the Templars of Sénart, in the final of the French baseball championship was difficult to digest. It must be said that the Quebec pitcher was at the heart of the action, to say the least, working for 17 innings in the last two games of the series which were held as part of a double program. .

“I made 207 shots that day, according to the statistics of the league, he specifies, I still do not understand how we did not win.”

Bélisle-Springer first made a complete game of nine innings, allowing a single hit to the Rouen Huskies, in the fourth game of this series 3 of 5. The Templars then won 3 to 1 to force the outfit. of a final meeting.

Sent back to the mound to start the playoff, after a short 40-minute break, the Quebecer allowed just one run in eight innings, but the Huskies scored three times in the top of the 10th to finally win 4-1 and take the top honors. .

“It’s hard, it’s been ages since I won a championship. I think the last time it was at the peewee AA level, with the Lac St-Louis Yankees, ”says Bélisle-Springer.

A human experience

Despite the disappointing result, the Quebec artilleryman does not draw less from a very positive assessment of his adventure in Europe, during which he also defended the colors of the Solingen Alligators, in the German championship, earlier in the summer.

Certainly, Bélisle-Springer did not earn a fortune: 600 euros per month, at most. However, he retained a superb human experience from it.

“It was an opportunity for me to continue playing baseball and experiencing something ‘cool’,” he says, recalling that his goal at the start of the summer was to carve out a job with Team Quebec, in the Frontier League.

However, he was cut off at training camp. Making against bad luck, good heart, Bélisle-Springer took advantage of his passage in Europe to travel a little. The Quebecer has notably had some wonderful moments off the field, according to his interests, which he himself qualifies as individuals.

“I’m a bit of a ‘nerd’, let’s say I like a lot of things that other baseball players don’t usually like,” he says, mentioning his “almost sickly” passion for board games.

In the skin of Marius

Among his escapades, Bélisle-Springer opens with a visit of a few days to Marseille, in the south of France.

“I am a great fan of the work of Marcel Pagnol and when I found myself in the port of Marseille and saw the“ ferry-boat ”, I became a bit like the character of Marius in my head, he says with a smile. It’s no longer the captain [Escartefigue] which is connected to the small ferry, but I did not want to take myself for this old alcoholic either … ”

Besides traveling, Bélisle-Springer highlights his life as roommates with Brandt, Shane and Jose, three of his teammates in France. A Quebecer, two Americans and a native player of Martinique gathered.

“We created friendships for life,” he says.

If his goal remains to play in Quebec next year, possibly with the Aigles de Trois-Rivières, Bélisle-Springer does not rule out the possibility of traveling again, he who had also played in Argentina, in 2017.

SEE ALSO …