If fellow AL MVP candidate Josh Donaldson is known as ‘The Bringer of Rain’, perhaps it’s time to call Mike Trout ‘The Follower of Storms’.
In a great story on Yahoo! Sports, Jeff Passan documents Trout’s growing off-field weather obsession, discussing how Trout is a weather geek who is very keen to absorb all information regarding the weather. He’s become the go-to weather reporter for the Angels squad.
Instead, Trout consumes weather information with a voraciousness that’s apparent to his Angels teammates. On his phone, he said, is a folder of apps called “Weather.” Trout scrolls through different models (Global Forecast System, European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, North American Ensemble Forecast System) and others that specify short-, medium- and long-range forecasting. If ever there’s a question about whether the Angels are going to play a particular game with gloomy skies above, they know whom to ask.
As Passan notes in his article, Trout’s love for weather started because he wanted to avoid class and daydreamed about it by looking outside. Trout connected with Jim Cantore, a Weather Channel meteorologist, via Twitter about his curiosity about the weather, and the connection may mean we’ll see Trout as a weather corresponded for the channel.
“We’re planning on me doing a story when there’s a big storm in Jersey,” he said. “I’m gonna be on the Weather Channel. Hopefully, we get a big snowstorm.” And if not, perhaps he can do it like Cantore and follow the bad weather where it goes. “A sick vacation for me,” Trout said, “would be to go to upstate New York when a big snowstorm hits.”
There’s a lot of good nuggets in this story that really humanizes one of baseball’s best talents, including this amazing quote about Trout’s seriousness about the topic, and his friendship with Cantore.
“I definitely see this guy chasing tornadoes, standing in snowstorms,” Cantore said. “And I hope I’ll be right there alongside him.”
#MikeTroutTheBest
