Don’t look for any bat flips from Mike Trout
Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout follows through on a base hit during the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday in Goodyear, Ariz.
Reporting From GOODYEAR, Ariz. — This idea that a pitcher should just grin and bear it if a batter hits a mammoth home run and celebrates by flipping his bat?
Mike Trout isn’t having any part of it.
“As a pitcher, I’d be pretty upset,” Trout said.
And would Trout say that such a demonstrative batter would be showing up the pitcher?
“It definitely would be,” the 24-year-old said.
That puts the two best players in baseball at opposite ends of the decorum spectrum. Bryce Harper, 23, recently told ESPN that the sport was “tired” because young players were discouraged from expressing themselves with “flair.”
“Jose Fernandez will strike you out and stare you down into the dugout and pump his fist,” Harper said. “And if you hit a homer and pimp it? He doesn’t care. Because you got him. That’s part of the game. It’s not the old feeling. …
“If a guy pumps his fist at me on the mound, I’m going to go, ‘Yeah, you got me. Good for you. Hopefully I get you next time.’ That’s what makes the game fun.”
Harper said the sport would be more popular if players could show exuberance.
“I just keep it the same,” Trout said. “I don’t try to show anybody up. Whatever somebody else does, that’s what they do.”
Trout said there is no chance he would flip his bat after a home run, even if he might try it during batting practice every now and then.
“We mess around in the cage and stuff,” he said. “During the game, I just hit the ball and go.
“I go out there and try to respect the game. I go out there and play. My parents always taught me to be humble.”
Arming up
For the second time this month, shortstop Andrelton Simmons is fighting a case of what Angels Manager Mike Scioscia called “spring-training arm.”
Simmons did not play in the field in the first two Cactus League games and has not done so in the past three games.
“It can take some time to get your arm in in-season form,” Scioscia said.
Scioscia said he expects Simmons to return in “a couple days” and said he does not expect the condition to linger. The Angels traded their top two pitching prospects — left-hander Sean Newcomb and right-hander Chris Ellis — and shortstop Erick Aybar for Simmons in November.
True to your school
Angels pitcher Nick Tropeano played at Stony Brook, the New York school that faces Kentucky in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament Thursday. Tropeano could not bring himself to pick Stony Brook to win the tournament when he filled out his bracket, but he did pick his school to beat Kentucky and advance to a regional semifinal.
“I think Kentucky will take them a little lightly,” Tropeano said.
Kentucky is an eight-time national champion and a 14-point favorite over Stony Brook, which is appearing in its first NCAA tournament.
Twitter: @BillShaikin
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