30 Astonishing Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Mike Trout

20 May 2019, 3:49 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Mike Trout, nicknamed "The Millville Meteor," is regarded as one of the most outstanding young players in the history of baseball, being a seven-time MLB All-Star and a six-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award. He is currently the center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Here are some interesting facts to know about the American professional baseball player:

He was born Michael Nelson Trout on August 07, 1991, in Vineland, New Jersey, to Debbie and Jeff Trout. He has two older siblings, a sister, Teal and a brother, Tyler.
Trout is known by many nicknames like ‘Prince Fish,’ ‘God’s Gift,’ ‘Millville Miracle,’ and ‘King Fish 2.0,’ in reference to retired Angel Tim Salmon. After a prankster edited his Wikipedia article to name him ‘Millville Meteor,’ he adopted it.
In February 2014, while introducing newly passed farm bill, President Barack Obama, compares the farm bill to Mike Trout, for its versatility and utility of the bill. He said that it was ‘like Mike Trout, for those of you who know baseball, somebody who’s got lot of tools.’
Trout signed his first big endorsement deal with beverage brand ‘BODYARMOR’ Super Drink in 2012. Aside BODYARMOR, Trout wears Nike shoes and batting gloves and has a contract to wear a Rawlings glove. He has an exclusive autograph deal with Major League Baseball Players Alumni Marketing.
He attended Millville Senior High School in Millville, where he excelled in basketball and baseball and earned five letters two in basketball and three in baseball.
He started as shortstop and as a pitcher for Thunderbolts in his junior years. As Millville made it to the state playoff, Trout had the distinction of throwing a no-hitter against Egg Harbor Township High School.
As a senior he was moved to outfield and in that year he hit 18 home runs, a New Jersey high school record. Instead of retiring his jersey, Millville awarded the jersey to the team captain, starting 2012.
After his father Jeff’s career as a baseball player was over, he became a history teacher, baseball coach and football coach at Millville High. Mike Trout would accompany him to practice every day, helping with shag fly balls during batting practice and worked as the bat boy during games.
Trout had a combination of size, speed and power rarely seen in a high school prospect. He was member of Tri-State Arsenal since the age of 14 and played in various tournaments including the Perfect Game WWBA Championships in 2007 and 2008.
According to Baseball America, Trout was the third-best prospect coming into 2009 MLB Draft. He was selected 25th overall pick by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and started his professional career in 2009 at rookie level Arizona League, playing for Arizona Angels.

He reached base six times in his first professional game and went on to hit .360 with 13 stolen bases in 187 appearances, 25 runs batted in over 39 games. He finished the year with Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League and was groomed as a center fielder.
Trout started the 2010 season with .362 hit in 81 games for Cedar Rapids before he was promoted to Rancho Cucamonga, an advanced Class-A club, where he batted .306. He finished the year with .341 in his second season, with 47 extra base hits, 73 walks, and 56 stolen bases.
He was named 2010 J.G. Taylor Spink Award as the Topps minor league Player of the Year. He was the youngest player to win the award at 19 years and two months. He was named a Baseball America All-Star as well as a Topps Class-A All-Star.
On July 08, 2011, the Los Angeles Angels promoted him to replace injured Peter Bourjos in center field. He made his MLB debut against the Seattle Mariners, staring in center field. He was 0-for-3 in his first game sporting No. 27 jersey.
He recorded his first career major hit, an infield single against Seattle Mariners pitcher Michael Pineda. He hit his major league home run against Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mark Worrell on July 24.
He was voted Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year for 2011, after hitting .326, with a .414 OBP, and .544 SLG with 11 home runs, 38 RBIs, 82 runs scored, 33 stolen bases in 91 games. He was on Baseball America’s 2011 Minor League All Star team.
Trout ended his rookie big league averaging .220 batting, with .281 on base percentage and a .390 slugging percentage with 5 home runs, 16 RBIs in his 40 games.
He was named American League co-Player of the Week for the first time for the period June 4-10, when he went 13-for-25 for a .520 batting average to go along with 10 runs scored and four stolen bases.
In the month of June, Trout batted .372 with three home runs and 16 RBIs to be named AL Player of the Month and AL Rookie of the Month. He went on to cross home plate in 14 consecutive games after scoring a run in a game on July 22, to break an Angels’ franchise and American League rookie record.
Trout became the first player in MLB history ever to hit at least 30 home runs and steals at least 45 bases and score 125 runs in one season when he accomplished it in 2012.

On November 12, 2012, he was awarded the ‘BBWAA Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year,’ becoming the first Angels player to win since Tim Salmon won it in 1993 and the youngest player.
A day later on November 13, he won the Heart and Hustle Award, for his sprit, tradition and passion for the game. He also won the Silver Slugger for being best offensive outfielder and the Fielding Bible Award as the best fielding center fielder in MLB.
Trout continued his form in 2013 season when he became the youngest player to hit for the cycle in American League history and sixth youngest in MLB history in the match against Mariners, on May 21.
On March 28, 2014, Trout signed a six year, $144.5 million extension. On April 19, he achieved his first golden sombrero in his 353 games after going 0-4 with four consecutive strikeouts against Max Scherzer.
Playing in his third All-Star Game on July 15, 2014, he went 2 for 3, with a double, a triple, and two RBIs and was named the Most Valuable Player of the game, to become the second youngest All-Star game MVP behind Ken Griffey.
He ended the 2014 season with .287 batting hits, with 36 home runs, 39 doubles, 9 triples, an AL-leading 111 RBIs, 16 stolen bases and an MLB-leading 115 runs scored. He was unanimously selected as the AL MVP, to become the sixth player to win both the regular season and the All-Star game MVP award in the same season.
On May 28, 2017, he sprained his left thumb with torn ulnar collateral ligament and was operated up on to be ruled out for six to eight weeks. He returned to action after missing 39 games and on August 7, on his 26th birthday, he doubled down the third base line for his 1,000th career hit. It marked the fourth time in six seasons he homered on his birthday.
On March 20, 2019, Trout signed a 12 year, $426 million contract with the Angels, as the richest contract in the history of North American sports.
He has been honored with American League Most Valuable Player twice in 2014 and 2016. He also won American League Player of the Month five times and American Player of the Week four times in his career.
On December 09, 2017, Trout married his longtime girlfriend Jessica Cox, after proposing to her in 2016. She works as a middle school teacher.