It only took $430 million to get us all talking about Mike Trout
Ted Berg writes the Morning Win newsletter for For The Win. Follow him on Twitter at @OGTedBerg or email AskTedBerg@gmail.com.
I'll never forget the look on Joey Votto's face when I asked him to name the best player in baseball. He looked disgusted. Handsome, but disgusted.
It was at last season's MLB All-Star media day, so the answer - to anyone who pays any attention to the sport whatsoever - was long established and indisputable: It's Mike Trout. I wanted to get Votto to talk about Trout, but I didn't want to put words in his mouth, so I started my line of inquiry in the vaguest possible terms: "Who is the best player in baseball right now?"
"Mike Trout is the best player in baseball," he said. "He's the best at everything… He has just clearly been the best for a long time."
News broke Tuesday that Trout and the Los Angeles Angeles agreed to terms on a new, 12-year $426.5 million extension that will replace the final two years of his existing contract. When it is finalized, it will represent the largest deal in the history of North American professional sports - shattering the record free-agent contract Bryce Harper just signed with the Phillies, and drawing to a close Harper's brief but spectacular tampering campaign to get Trout to join him.
Trout is so good that the investment looks like a downright bargain for the Angels. Earlier this offseason, I looked ahead at Trout's forthcoming - and now precluded - 2021 free agency and guessed he'd get over $500 million.
The massive extension did something rare for Trout: It put him right in the middle of the national sports spotlight, a place he almost never occupies. The most notable thing about Trout, undoubtedly, is his unprecedented, off-the-charts greatness at a young age: He is 27 years old and already has seven Top 5 MVP finishes.
But the second most notable thing about Trout is how little hype he manages to generate with his unprecedented, off-the-charts greatness. There's a lot to it, and I've been through much of it many times before. Trout, admirably, seems far more invested in being the best baseball player than in being the most famous baseball player, but there's a lot about baseball and Trout conspiring against a more thorough appreciation for his talents.
Trout plays on the West Coast, so most of his games don't start until half the country has gone to bed. He has only played in three postseason games to date in his career. No single baseball player, no matter how good, affects every one of his team's games the way a star in football or basketball does. Teams play 162 games a season, and fans spend so much time watching their local clubs that the sport tends to breed regional stars rather than national ones. Trout is a nice guy who is genuinely awesome to fans, but he's not one to court controversy with comments. He loves baseball, he loves his hometown in New Jersey, and he loves the weather.
And he is so good, and so consistently good, that he doesn't offer many debates to embrace. Ask a Major League Baseball player to name the best player on the planet and they will either look disappointed in you, like Votto did, or just laugh in your face.
Trout's huge extension helped shine a light on his excellence on Tuesday, which is probably a good thing for humanity. But it also means he'll likely spend the rest of his career playing home games in Pacific Standard Time, he won't enjoy a winter-long referendum on his greatness like he would have if he hit free agency in two seasons, and that it is now incumbent upon the Angels to get this dude to the World Series so he can get the platform his otherworldly ability deserves.
Until then, there'll likely be more hand-wringing over MLB's inability to properly market the guy as a potential G.O.A.T., but, ultimately, who cares? If I know Mike Trout's the best at baseball and you know Mike Trout's the baseball and Joey Votto knows Mike Trout's the best at baseball, then maybe you, me and Joey Votto can just focus on appreciating the guy instead of worrying why too many people do not.
Tuesday's big winner: Katie Lou Samuelson
Somehow UConn women's basketball drew a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the school's first time without a No. 1 seed since 2006. Samuelson, a star senior on the team, shared on Instagram a quote I will now start using frequently in real life: "Keep your head high, and your middle finger higher."
Quick hits: Mascots, ballpark food, Stephen A.
- Charles Curtis ranked all 68 NCAA Tournament teams by mascot. It's important and largely accurate work. I would've bumped up the Billiken, because it is named after a charm doll thought to bring good luck during the early 20th century "Mind-Cure" movement, and because look at this weird thing:
- It's the time of year when baseball teams vie for internet attention by finding the wildest things they can shove pork inside. And just wait until minor-league teams start posting their wackiest foodstuffs.
- Stephen A. Smith forgot that Mike Scioscia is no longer the Angels' manager during an awkward on-air interview. My feelings on this are kind of complicated. I'd love to poke fun at the dude since he carries on as an expert on everything, but I forget stuff all the time and fear someday doing something similar. I honestly think it's weird that anyone still buys into the purported expertise of the all-sport TV pundit in general, and I hate that this industry makes it somehow bad for people to just admit when they don't know stuff. I feel confident that I know enough stuff that I'm OK with saying when I don't know. But then when you cop to ignorance, people crawl out of the woodwork like, "how dare you!? Why do you have a job?"
Weird sport Wednesday
The Japanese sport Bo-taoshi takes place between two teams of 150 players each. Its name translates to "pole-toppling," and that pretty much gets to the core of it: The goal is to topple the other team's pole. Teams split into 75 attackers and 75 defenders vie to upend their opponents' perpendicular pole before their own pole falls. It's violent and chaotic and pretty darn awesome. According to the Wikipedia, it is traditionally played by cadets at the National Defense Academy of Japan.