OC Register: Whicker: Mike Trout is a regular guy who happens to be the best player in baseball

[AngelsWin.com]

It was early in the 2002 season, another beautiful night in a beautiful stadium in Anaheim, another parade of cars on the 57 South, visible beyond left field, few of them stopping.

Empty seats were in the majority. Fans stretched out. It was casual and pleasant. It also wasn’t good business.

A longtime Angel employee sighed and asked, “I don’t know what we can do to draw. We’ve tried everything.”

He was referring to the stadium renovation, to new ownership, to diving into the free-agent market, to growing their own, to leading by 11 games in August.

Someone replied, “There is one thing you haven’t tried.”

“What’s that?”

“Winning.”

And then the Angels tried that.

They clinched an American League wild-card spot in the final week of that season and came home to a different territory. Cars backed up on the exit ramps. More than 40 years of inertia was replaced by an avalanche of screaming Halomania. It did not stop until the Angels won the World Series.

It really hasn’t stopped yet. The Angels drew 3.06 million fans the next season, an increase of more than 700,000. They have not failed to draw 3 million since. That has prevailed through a wretched decade, with only one playoff appearance since 2009. In that one, the Angels got swept in three by Kansas City.

Baseball’s Topic Of The Week was the prominence of Mike Trout, or lack of it. Why isn’t he LeBron James, Drake or the most interesting man in the world?

Some say it is baseball’s fault. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred appeared to say it was Trout’s fault, that you can’t be “passive” when it comes to marketing yourself.

Taken literally, his words were relatively innocent, but the Angels countered by trumpeting Trout’s all-around virtue, particularly his charitable work, and seven years of masterful play without a public misstep.

There was some legit grievance there, but there was also a we-got-your-back message to Trout, who becomes a free agent after the 2020 season.

This was the kind of pointless crossfire normally seen on the political channels. It was not based on fact, but perception.

Trout is not a tree falling in a remote forest. He has finished first or second in every American League MVP race but one, and won the award in 2016 when the Angels lost 88 games.

He is routinely described as the Face Of Baseball, primarily because he has such a contented face, doing what he loves.

How famous is he supposed to be? Nolan Arenado, in Colorado, has almost as much impact and is more obscure. Kris Bryant isn’t all over TV. Aaron Judge is, but he hits long home runs and plays for the Yankees. Corey Kluber and Chris Sale could walk down Fifth Avenue wearing candy-striped sports coats with gold-plated name tags and it wouldn’t matter.

The NBA and the NFL are different. Quarterback is the most dominant and visible position in sports. Basketball’s human conglomerates play at least 40 of 48 minutes and can turn around a team’s fortune with one dotted-line sign.

Trout makes a plate appearance 11 percent of the time. The limits of his influence are painfully plain.

We watch and identify with baseball teams, not individuals. And we’re still watching. Forbes Magazine reports that MLB games in 11 markets are the highest-rated prime-time TV shows. In 24 markets, they’re atop the cable-only ratings – and that doesn’t count the continuing Dodgers blackout.

Generally, a ballplayer has to do outsized things to make a commercial splash. Reggie Jackson did them. So did Mark McGwire. So did Nolan Ryan and David Ortiz. Barry Bonds, in other circumstances, assuredly would have.

Trout isn’t a mythic figure. He’s a regular guy who sits in the seats, not in the suites, at Philadelphia Eagles games. He just plays mythic baseball on a nightly basis.

It’s refreshing and nostalgic to see a great player who doesn’t chase popularity, who has no trademark pose or shimmy or dance.

In the NBA, you don’t have to win to sell (i.e., Chris Paul, James Harden, Blake Griffin). In baseball, you do. The postseason is the only time America gathers around. Derek Jeter wasn’t a celebrity because of what he did from April through September. He was the captain of the Last Dynasty, and he collected the spoils.

If Mike Trout gets to a World Series and homers five times in seven games and reaches above the wall to grab somebody else’s drive, his face will become inescapable. Maybe he’ll be an Angel when that happens. Maybe not.

In the meantime, let’s not dissuade Trout of the belief that he only needs to play one game.

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[Dick B Back]

Rumor has it that Valbuena is still on the roster till he gets done teaching Trout his patented bat flip.