Trout Can Fly, and Other Hard to Believe Fish Stories

But the other reason is one that I think garners some league-wide attention, so here you go. Two nights ago, before he hurt his toe, Mike trout hit a routine grounder to the Pears (and A’s) SS Marcus Semien. Semien, whose defense has improved markedly over the past 2 years, fielded it cleanly, took two shuffle steps towards first base, then threw a strike right to the first baseman. It is the type of play that is an easy out 99% of the time in the MLB. Except for the fact that Trout was sprinting down the line and just a moment before the ball landed in the glove of the first baseman, his left foot touched first base and he was safe.

Why is this newsworthy? Well, I am not sure it is actually newsworthy, but enough people have written about it in the past two days that it seems to be significant. And the main reasons are that the Angels are 26 games out of first place, Trout just signed a half a billion dollar contract, and it is September.

I remember the first time I realized MLB players usually don’t run ground balls out. It was about 5 years ago at a Mariners game against the Red Sox, and Robinson Cano hit a ground ball to the second baseman and then, inexplicably (I thought), just jogged down the line. He made it about 20 feet before the ball was thrown to first and he was called out. I waited for the manager to come out of the dugout to yell at Cano, or for a change in the lineup to be made, but that didn’t happen. And then I decided to watch every player run down to first (instead of watching where the ball was hit). And wouldn’t you know it? Almost every single player who hit a routine grounder in the infield just jogged to first base (and some never even made it there!). It wasn’t just the All Star Robby Cano, but the journeyman Eduardo Nunez, the rookie Mookie Betts, and the catcher Mike Zunino.

It is odd to me that someone sprinting down the line to beat out a routine ground ball is news, and it also makes sense. Fans pay a lot of money to attend baseball games, and they want to see players who approach the game with a zeal that makes it worth spending the money. As a youth sports coach, I want to be able to point to players and say, “Do it like he does!” But with so many guys jogging down the line, it makes it difficult to find those good examples.

Except for Mike Trout. His OPS is over 1.000, he is currently fighting with a few others for the HR title this year, and he is near the league leaders in every offensive stat…and he is still sprinting to beat out routine ground balls.

That’s what he should be the face of the league but never will be.