Center ice to center field: Hockey-loving Vancouver Canadian Garrett Spain seeks to sparkle on the diamond

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Vancouver Canadians centre-fielder Garrett Spain playing in a market north of the border is ideal, considering seconds into a conversation with him you can find yourself talking about Jordin Tootoo’s physical play and other, similar things.

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Spain, 21, is from Clarksville, Tenn., and admits he was more into hockey than baseball as a kid, falling hard for the Nashville Predators and their former spark plug Tootoo in particular.

Spain played both sports through high school — the forward even has a page at hockey’s eliteprospects.com — but when the lone scholarship offer involved the bat and ball, he opted to drop any serious continuation with the stick and puck.

Spain started hockey and baseball when he was four years old. The push for hockey came after watching the Predators on television. He recalls that the first game he witnessed Tootoo had a Gordie Howe hat trick.

The Gordie Howe features a player recording a goal, an assist and a fighting major in a single game. There’s likely not many others in the C’s clubhouse who can offer up that definition.

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“There’s maybe two or three,” said Spain, whose team is in the midst of hosting the Eugene Emeralds in a six-game series at Nat Bailey Stadium this week. “It is weird, but it’s been like that my whole life. Where I grew up in Tennessee nobody knows hockey, nobody plays hockey. I had to travel to Nashville (which is a 45-minute drive southeast of Clarksville) for hockey.

“Today, I love hockey just as much as baseball. When I was a kid, it was always hockey, and then baseball.”

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Spain has been such a fan of Tootoo, a scrappy winger whose 13-year NHL career ended in the 2016-17 season, that he lists 22 as his favorite number. That was the jersey that Tootoo wore for the majority of his time with the Predators.

Spain remains a fan of the club, explaining that “anybody on the Preds I really like.” He says he got dialed in on the Colorado Avalanche when they swept Nashville in the first round of the playoffs, and believes that Colorado will beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.

“They’re good, man. It’s hard to beat Tampa, but they’re the team to do it,” he said.

He’s excited, too, to see how hockey talk ramps up in Vancouver through the summer and into the fall. The C’s high-A Northwest League regular season closes Sept. 11. The Canucks will begin training camp Sept. 23 in Whistler.

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The Toronto Blue Jays, who are the C’s big-league parent club, picked Spain in the 15th round in the 2021 amateur draft out of Austin Peay State Universitya school in his hometown of Clarksville.

He had brought hockey gear with him when he went to the Blue Jays’ spring training in Dunedin, Fla., this year. He opted against bringing it along to Vancouver when he was assigned to the C’s, partly he didn’t want to worry about lugging that extra luggage and partly because he figured “it would be too tempting.” He’s had issues with a nagging wrist injury the past two seasons.

Spain, like the rest of the C’s, is staying at the University of BC this season. There are spots in the Lower Mainland where he could find ice time if he wanted to.

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“If I had my stuff, I’d be out there every other day probably,” he said.

Spain, a 5-foot-11, 178-pound left-handed hitter, was an all-state all-star in baseball at Clarksville High but the only scholarship offer he received was from Austin Peay. Google Maps lists the schools as being a 13-minute drive apart. He believed he was a season or two of junior hockey from getting any hockey scholarship interest.

Spain hit .324, with a 20 home runs and 108 runs batted in over three seasons at Austin Peay which totaled 125 games. He hit .197 in 23 games over two levels in the Toronto system last summer. As of Thursday morning, he was hitting .219, with a homer and four RBI, through 28 games with the C’s this year.

He had a three-week run on the injured list because of wrist issues wrap up June 7.

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“I have to keep improving my outfield play and try to get more hard contact consistently,” Spain said. “I’ve been trying to find a groove and just settle in it.”

Emeralds come calling this weekend

Vancouver has a doubleheader matinee with Eugene Friday, a night game Saturday with the Emeralds and then closes out the set against those San Francisco Giants farmhands on Sunday afternoon.

Southpaw Ricky Tiedemann, 19, who recently entered mlb.com’s Top-100 prospects (No. 97) and Top-10 left-handed pitcher prospects (No. 9) lists, is slated to start the first game on Friday. He’s 2-0, with an 0.46 earned run average, through four starts with Vancouver. In 19 and two-thirds innings, he has struck out 28, walked three and allowed nine hits.

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