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Millville’s Mike Trout is better than ever but thirsting for postseason success

Trout will earn his seventh consecutive all-star berth this year

Angels' outfielder and Millville, NJ  Mike Trout from earlier this season.
Angels' outfielder and Millville, NJ Mike Trout from earlier this season.Read moreJAE C. HONG / AP

BALTIMORE — Los Angeles Angels centerfielder Mike Trout of Millville, N.J.,  felt the exhilaration as a fan while sitting in U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis watching his favorite team win the Super Bowl and only hoped one day that could happen to him as a player.

Almost five months since the Eagles' 41-33 win over the New England Patriots, the joy hasn't faded from many fans, including one of the Eagles's highest-profile backers.

"It was a great experience," Trout said by his locker before Friday's 7-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. "I have been a lifelong fan and you always want your team to win a championship and they did."

One fellow Eagles fan is Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a graduate of Springfield Delco, who during the Eagles postseason was a constant text partner with Trout, especially on game day. Not surprisingly, Trout had prime seats.

"He was texting met where he was sitting," said Scioscia who hosted a Super Bowl party that day with Eagles fans."I said, 'You got those seats' and he said 'It cost me an arm and a leg.'"

The only thing Trout wants more is a championship for his real team.
"You kind of visualize what they are going through that night," he recalled about the Eagles. "As a fan, it was an unbelievable feeling. I can't imagine what it would be like as a player."

Regarded as baseball's best player, this is Trout's seventh full season and despite two MVP's, three runners-up and one fourth-pace finish, this could be his best one to date personally.

Yet it has been another disappointing injury-plagued season for the Angels, who entered Friday evening 41-41, but 13.5 games out of first place in the high-powered American League West and 10 games out of a wild-card spot.

Trout has appeared in just one playoff series and the Angels were swept in three games by Kansas City in the 2014 divisional series.

This year, he appears no closer to the postseason.

"It has been tough," Trout said. "We have been banged up with a lot of injuries."

Still, Trout entered the game batting .320 with an outlandish 1.101 OPS and 205 OPS plus. He hit a first-inning solo home run, giving him 24 on the year along with 49 RBIs.

Trout's Wins Above Replacement (WAR), according  to Baseball Reference is 6.7 and he has a shot at the best of all time, 14.1 by a pretty fair player named Babe Ruth in 1923.

Of all the stats for Trout, the one that truly measures his greatness is this: Since he was called up early in 2012 for his first full big-league season, Trout has never gone more than two consecutive games without reaching base.

"He is as advertised and is as good as everybody says he is," said outfielder Justin Upton in his first full season with the Angels after being acquired from Detroit last August. "Nothing about him surprises me, really. When you think of the best player in baseball, you think of a guy who is well-rounded and does everything on the baseball field and he does that."

Entering Friday, Trout's career 60.8 WAR was tops in major-league history through the 1,007 games that he has appeared in.

"I come here and try to get better each and every day and I don't worry about stats," Trout said. "I have fun playing, and enjoy it."

Imagine if the Angeles could prosper in the postseason, just like Trout's favorite football team.