Bill Reiter of Sports Illustrated wrote a fabulous oral history of Mike Trout and his young, stupendous career that went up today, and there are plenty of Trout anecdotes in the story that will amaze, entertain, and amuse you.
For instance, Yankees GM Brian Cashman still claims Trout was #2 on the team’s draft board behind only Stephen Strasburg.
Brian Cashman, Yankees General Manager: This is real: He was No. 2 on our draft board. Stephen Strasburg was No. 1. We were picking toward the back, No. 29, but we didn’t think anybody was on him. He came off the board before us, and that’s that.
That’s not all that surprising, given that the Yankees are a team in the northeast, Trout went to high school in the northeast, and that the first round of that 2009 Draft was pretty much a disaster minus Strasburg, Trout, and Diamondbacks outfielder A.J. Pollock.
(funnily enough, the 25th pick that the Angels used to take Trout was a compensation pick the team received…from the Yankees when they signed Mark Teixeira as a free agent)
There’s also this story from Angels outfielder Kole Calhoun, about former Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson noticing that Trout didn’t park perfectly.
Calhoun: One time I had a teammate, C.J. Wilson, take a picture of Trout parking. His parking job was crooked—didn’t care, tried to get to the clubhouse quick. C.J. goes, “Here’s the only thing that Trout’s not the best at.”
But the story I liked most came from ex-Angels and current Diamondbacks pitching coach Mike Butcher, who revealed that Trout played his kid in Clash of Clans and not so subtly told him to use his dad’s credit card to buy items in the game.
Mike Butcher, Angels Pitching Coach, 2007–15: Mike loves video games, and he used to play my son in an online game called Clash of Clans. Mike was winning, and my son asked him why he had so many weapons and tools. Mike said, “You’ve got to spend some money if you want to play with the big boys. Use your dad’s account.” The next day I get a receipt that shows $1,500 in charges. Fifteen hundred dollars! I thought somebody hacked my account. I go to my son, “What is this all about?” And he says, “Mike Trout said I needed these.” I see Mike later that day, and he’s just laughing. He’s really this great big kid who’s always having fun. He hasn’t changed a bit.
Hopefully Trout paid Butcher back and told his son never to do that again.
There are plenty of other great stories in Reiter’s piece, and I suggest you give it a read. Baseball needs more players like Mike Trout, and he really should be more popular than he is.
