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Blue Jays prospect Daniel Norris gets mistaken for a homeless man

Blue Jays pitching prospect Daniel Norris at training camp in Dudedin, Fla. (AP)
Blue Jays pitching prospect Daniel Norris at training camp in Dudedin, Fla. (AP)

Toronto Blue Jays top prospect Daniel Norris has become famous this offseason for being something of a baseball hippie — he lived in his van during a slow trek to spring training, stopping and surfing along the way, cooking his food and brewing his coffee at rest stops.

Van life, he calls it, as he turned the drive from his home in Johnson City, Tenn., to Dunedin, Fla., where the Blue Jays train, into a several-week jaunt. Norris and his van — a 1978 Volkswagen — arrived at Blue Jays spring training camp earlier this week, but that wasn't the end of his adventures.

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The 21-year-old lefty, the No. 18 overall prospect on Baseball America's Top 100 list, says he was mistaken for a homeless man by a stranger who spotted him sleeping in his van. He was outside of a Whole Foods in Florida after his day at Blue Jays camp.

The beard, the van — we understand how someone might jump to the conclusion that Norris is homeless. But in fact, he got a $2 million signing bonus when the Blue Jays drafted him in the second round in 2011. He's not flashy, nor is he particularly conventional by 2015 norms, but he is himself.

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This tweet, sent by Norris a few hours after the Whole Foods incident, sums up his ethos pretty well:

Just keep living, man.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!