Jake Marisnick and George Springer stopped at Dinosaur World on their way to the game
It's not exactly Jurassic Park, but Astros outfielders Jake Marisnick and George Springer made a pit stop on their way to the Astros' Spring Training game against the Phillies on Thursday and posed for a selfie in front of "Dinosaur World," which sits along I-4 between Orlando and Tampa.
Marisnick tweeted out the picture, which caught the attention of Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who allows some players in the starting lineup to drive to some spring games themselves and skip the bus. Hinch was amused by the selfie.
"That's the team we have," he joked. "You know what it tells me. It tells me I should separate them on these trips."
Marisnick and Springer often hang out together, and Hinch loves to give both a hard time. But, the manager gives the players his own assignments throughout the spring to promote team bonding. Last year, pitcher Mark Appel had to do a report on some teammates he didn't know. This year, pitcher Lance McCullers was tasked with doubling the Twitter followers of Joe Musgrove .
The two outfielders might have gotten themselves into a battle they can't win. "What they're going to do is walk themselves into an assignment or two," Hinch said. "We make the trip to Bradenton [Fla.] and there's an aquarium or two that we know about. There's a few landmarks in the travels of the Grapefruit League, we could have a whole selfie series."
Brian McTaggart is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Tag's Lines. Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter and listen to his podcast.