The achievements of Mike Trout, arguably the best player in baseball, are well chronicled, but there’s plenty to learn about the Los Angeles Angels star beyond the stats.
For instance, did you know he was once banned from playing a certain carnival game at the county fair, or that he asked for the autograph of his childhood idol on the field during a MLB game, or that he was once walked intentionally with the bases loaded?
Here, then, are some facts about the Millville, N.J., native that might surprise you, or at least enlighten and entertain you:
A different side to Mike Trout:
In the “Before the Bigs: Mike Trout” documentary by FOX Sports West, Tyler Trout revealed that there is another side to his brother that people don’t see. It’s his prankster side.
“I remember growing up, one time we put a walkie-talkie on my grandmother’s dog and sent him into her house and we were talking to her through the walk-talkie. She’s looking at the dog thinking, ‘Is this dog really…’ and we’re watching through the window of course laughing uncontrollably.”
Tyler said grandma started responding back to the dog, but we suspect in the end she had a good laugh, too.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
A nickname evolves from Wikipedia:
Mike Trout has been called Prince Fish, God’s Gift, and King Fish 2.0 in reference to the Angels’ first King Fish, Tim Salmon. But one day a prankster added a new nickname on his Wikipedia page: The Millville Meteor.
“I found out it was on a Wikipedia page,” Trout explained to the Long Beach Press-Telegram in 2014. “I think someone added it and just put the name out there and people ran with it.”
It remains on his Wikipedia page to this day.
Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Banned from a carnival game:
When Tyler and Mike Trout were really young, the brothers would go to the Cumberland County Fair and play a game where you use a baseball to knock over metal milk bottles stacked in a pyramid.
Mike played it so often and got so good he started winning too much for the fair’s liking.
“They banned him from throwing the baseball at the stack of bottles because he was knocking them all over every time and taking all the prizes,” Terry Pangbum of the Cumberland County Fair said in the documentary “Before the Bigs: Mike Trout.”
Tyler remembers Mike “being so furious” over the ban.
Photo used with permission by the Cumberland County Fair.
Autograph hound:
Growing up, Mike Trout’s idol was Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. So it was only natural that Trout tried to get his autograph. But when the opportunity presented itself, it was at the unlikeliest time and in the unlikeliest place: On the field during a game when he was a rookie in 2011.
“I think I was on second base when I asked him, ‘If I send a ball over, can you sign it?’” Trout once told Dan Patrick on his radio show. “It’s like a blur now. I don’t even remember what I said because I was so nervous and so star-struck.”
But Jeter obliged. After the game, he signed the ball Trout sent over.
Photo: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
“Let’s play Jeopardy!”:
In 2013, Mike Trout became a question in Jeopardy!
Host Alex Trebek gave the contestants this answer: “This ‘fishy’ outfielder put up huge numbers for the Angels in his 2012 Rookie of the Year-winning season.”
From what we understand, none of the contestants answered correctly. One wonders if they would give the proper answer—“Who is Mike Trout?”—today.
Wearing Trout’s high school jersey becomes an honor:
Mike Trout started out his baseball career wearing No. 2 in honor of his childhood idol, Derek Jeter, but changed to No. 1 in high school.
When Trout graduated from Millville Senior High School in 2009, it was the last time anyone wore No. 1, as the school mulled retiring the jersey. Instead, the decision was made to give the jersey to the senior captain each season as a prestigious honor. The tradition began in 2012.
“Trout had committed to East Carolina [University], we got to know the coaching staff down there very well and it’s something they do,” Millville head coach Roy Hallenbeck told NJ.com in 2012. “They have an honorary number that’s made to be very special. That was one of Mike’s goals when he was going to college, to get down there and one day wear that number.”
Of course, that never happened as he opted for the MLB Draft instead.
Being intentionally walked dates to high school:
Incredibly, Mike Trout was walked intentionally with the bases loaded during a quarterfinal state playoff game his junior season at Millville Senior High School. As reported by the Courier Post, Trout was intentionally walked three times that day by Cherry Hills East.
Cougars coach Erik Radbill told the Post his strategy was simple: Don’t let Trout beat us. Radbill told the Post:
“At the time we [his assistant coach and he] were meeting [before the game], we didn’t say we’re going to walk him every time even if the bases are loaded, but we were saying look, if we want to move on we can’t let Mike Trout beat us, so we had talked that over and that’s what it came down to, let’s just walk him every single time he comes up. That’s what we said we’re going to do.”
As you can imagine, the Thunderbolts and their faithful weren’t too happy about it, but the strategy worked. The Cougars upset the host Thunderbolts, 11-5.
Photo: Harry How/Getty Images
Millville’s baseball diamond becomes Mike Trout Field:
Mike Trout won the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year and donated his full bonus of $20,000 to the Millville Senior High School baseball program to renovate its field. The diamond where Trout became famous was renamed Mike Trout Field.
“For me, being able to give back is something special and an honor,” Trout told MLB.com. “So to give the kids, the coaches and my high school every opportunity to succeed with a better field, better cage, it’s very important to me.”
President Obama drops Trout’s name in signing Farm Bill:
On Feb. 7, 2014 at Michigan State University, President Obama dropped the name of Mike Trout in a speech about the Farm Bill he was about to sign, describing the variety of ways it would help the economy.
“Now, despite its name, the Farm Bill is not just about helping farmers,” the president said, according to Obama White House archives. “Secretary Vilsack calls it a jobs bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a research bill, a conservation bill. It’s like a Swiss Army knife. It’s like Mike Trout—for those of you who know baseball. It’s somebody who’s got a lot of tools. It multitasks. It’s creating more good jobs, gives more Americans a shot at opportunity.”
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Trout honors late brother-in-law with HR
As Mike Trout touched home plate after hitting his 37th home run of the 2019 season, he pointed to the sky in a gesture that said, “That one was for you, Aaron.”
Trout explained in an Instagram post that he was honoring his late brother-in-law Aaron Cox, a pitcher in the Angels organization before his tragic death last summer.
Trout hit the home run on Aug. 5, 2019—Cox’s birthday. He’d have been 25.
Trout’s home runs $9.15 million
When you sign the biggest contract in sports history at $430 million for 12 years, you can afford this $9.15 million mansion in the guard-gated community of Newport Beach.
Dirt, a real estate site, reported that Mike Trout purchased the 9,000-square-foot “breathtaking estate,” featuring an elevator servicing all three levels, built-in back-yard doggie bath, four guest suites, and distant views of the ocean.
The question is, will he have enough room for all his trophies?
Centerfield wasn’t always his position:
Mike Trout was a shortstop and pitcher in high school, and once threw a no-hitter as a junior with 18 of the 21 outs coming on strikeouts in a 6-0 victory over Egg Harbor Township. He shifted to outfield his senior year and set a New Jersey record with 18 home runs.
His traveling team coach Joe Barth once said Trout literally could have played anywhere when he was 13 and 14 years old, adding that Trout “literally sees the ball better than normal people. He has eyes like an eagle.”
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora would agree, telling Sports Illustrated, “He recognizes pitches out of the hand faster than anybody. He’s like [Barry] Bonds that way.”
Photo: Harry How/Getty Images
Baseball wasn’t his only sport:
Mike Trout was also outstanding in basketball. Millville high’s basketball coach Dale Moore told NJ.com in June 2009 that Trout “never took a play off.”
“He played every second like it was the last second he would play,” Moore said. “I don’t even know if taking a play off would cross his mind. It’s not part of his makeup.”
In April 2016, MLB.com reported that Trout and the Angels were in Oakland playing the A’s, so he swung by a Golden State Warriors practice and showed he still had his hoop skills, throwing down a one-handed dunk.
If Trout were a pro in another sport, it wouldn’t be hoops:
“If I was a professional athlete in another sport it would have to be golf,” Trout told Abbey Mastracco of FOX Sports West in 2013.
He told Mastracco he plays golf as much as possible and plays almost daily in the offseason.
“When I play every day I’m probably like a seven or eight, maybe a nine handicap,” he said. “If I don’t play every day then I’m a little shaky.”
Dad was no slouch in baseball, either:
Mike Trout came from good baseball genes. His father Jeff was a switch-hitting second baseman who was also a star in Millville’s Little League program.
Jeff Trout set several school records at Millville High and went on to play for the University of Delaware where he became an All American.
Jeff was drafted by the Minnesota Twins with the first pick in the fifth round. He played 3 1/2 years in the minors where he never graduated past Double-A. At age 25, he retired and became a history teacher at Millville Senior High School. He also was the football and baseball coach, though he never coached Mike.
Trout puts Millville Night back on the map:
Mike Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J., is 45 miles to the south of Philadelphia, so Trout and Millville citizens being fans of Philadelphia sports is a natural.
When the Angels were scheduled to play at Philadelphia in May 2014 marking Trout’s first homecoming as a major leaguer, local radio-show host Jim Quinn urged the Phillies to revive Millville Night, which died in the early 1980s, as recounted by the Los Angeles Times.
The team said it would if Quinn could guarantee he’d sell 500 tickets. He sold 1,000 in two weeks and another 3,000 in April. Among those in attendance was the Millville Senior High School baseball team, which was scheduled to play that day. The game was rescheduled.
The Millville mayor threw out the first pitch, the Millville High band and chorus performed the National Anthem and some 8,000 people from Millville cheered their native son.
“It was a special moment for me—a real special moment,” Trout said after the game won by the Angels, 4-3, as reported by MLB.com. “It was unbelievable. I wanted to take it in a little longer and thank the fans. It means a lot to me, my family. I wanted to thank them. It gave me chills to have an opposing team support me like that. It was an awesome feeling.”
For Trout, it was an unforgettable night, despite an uneventful night at the plate (1 for 5).
Photo: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Trout’s Little League roots are noteworthy:
Mike Trout’s baseball career began in Little League in Millville where it was said that he’d wear his baseball uniform to bed the night before opening day.
His Little League coach was effusive in his praise.
“His physical skills were tremendous,” Kevin Kavanagh said in the “Before the Bigs: Mike Trout” documentary. “He was fast as lightning. He could hit the ball a ton. He could throw like there was no tomorrow, and he just knew things. When he was on the field as a 9-year-old, he knew things the 12-year-olds didn’t know.
“As a 9-year-old, I’ve always said he was one the five best players in the league. As a 10-year-old, he was one of the two best. Then at 11 and 12 he was a man among boys. The nicest thing about him was that he was such a nice kid. He was so much better than everybody else and yet was still a super sweet, nice kid.”
And still is.
A proposal written in the heavens:
In the summer of 2016, Mike Trout, an amateur meteorologist, presumably made sure there were clear skies—for obvious reasons—when he proposed to his high school sweetheart, Jessica Cox.
“Will you marry me Jess?” was written on a beautiful blue canvas by a skywriter.
“She said yes!!!” Trout wrote on Instagram.
“I’m so excited to finally be able to officially call this amazing man my fiancé!” Jessica wrote on Instagram.
A match made in heaven.
Peer pressure led to change in hairstyle:
In 2014, Mike Trout commented on Instagram about rocking the same haircut ever since he was a baby. It was the same old buzz cut.
Well, that changed during the 2016 season when he shed his trademark flat-top haircut and grew it out longer on top, much like he does today.
“Some of my teammates were complaining that I had the same buzz cut since third grade,” Trout told ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick in February 2017. “When [Jered] Weaver was here, he has long hair, obviously, and a couple other guys were growing it out. I was like, ‘Hey, maybe I should try it.’ Jess liked it, so I decided to keep it.”
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
A wedding day celebration:
Mike Trout married his high school sweetheart Jessica Cox in December 2017 on the same day the Angels announced the signing of two-way player Shohei Ohtani from Japan.
“From this day forward, you shall not walk alone,” Trout wrote on Twitter. “My heart will be your shelter, and my arms will be your home. I love you, my WIFE!”
Mrs. Trout called the weekend “pure magic,” and she wasn’t referring to Ohtani’s signing.
Trout proves he can fish, too:
Mike Trout and company went deep to reel in an estimated 500-pound goliath grouper while on vacation in Key West, Fla., in January 2013.
Jessica, Trout’s girlfriend at the time, wrote on Twitter, “I’d say it was a good day fishing!”
Since it’s not legal to keep goliath grouper, the fish was released.
