Don’t Take Mike Trout for Granted
The Los Angeles Angels centerfielder shouldn’t need to be on a contending team for baseball fans to appreciate his consistent excellence.
For more than a month, from the end of May to the middle of July, baseball was without its best player. Mike Trout, the 25-year-old centerfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, slid into second base one afternoon, tore a ligament in his thumb, and went on the disabled list for the first time in his career. Gone were his airborne catches at the outfield wall, his piston-footed stolen bases, his home runs scattered to every part of the park. Gone too was the visible sense of mastery that always hangs around Trout, regardless of momentary success or failure: the comma of a swing, the strangely unhurried speed.
