Since he debuted July 8, 2011, a month shy of his 20th birthday, Mike Trout has served as the face of the Los Angeles Angels. On Tuesday, the two-time American League Most Valuable Player received an eponymous shirt night, with his club literally acknowledging his image as the organization’s chief identifier by placing an enormous headshot of the superstar on thousands of plain white tees.
The 26-year-old is enjoying another stellar season, but since the Angels find themselves 14 games out of first place in the American League West, the rest of the summer might prove a slow burn for the fan base. The standings did not matter two days ago, though, as the California club, which owns the sixth-best home attendance average across Major League Baseball, welcomed a typically large crowd to Angels Stadium. The diamond denizens’ play did not disappoint them, as the hosts emerged with a 9-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners. We like storybook plots, so we can say it would have been awesome to relay that Trout played the hero, but he had to settle for “only” two hits and a walk in the blowout.
Are those a bunch of Trout heads dancing or are we hallucinating at 4am?#VoteSimba: https://t.co/k2U8P9ODFH pic.twitter.com/4ARsThVDSt
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) July 11, 2018
Thanks to his prowess at the plate, which could yield yet another MVP award and an inaugural first home run crown, it made perfect sense for the Angels to grace Trout with the T-shirt tribute, as he has taken on a larger-than-life identity in the Golden State. While the Angels have yet to establish themselves as contenders, making the postseason only once since the seven-time All-Star joined the roster, Trout has become a highly revered producer. We at Promo Marketing hope he joins our beloved Phillies—owing to his admiration for the Super Bowl champion Eagles, and his status as a South Jersey native—when his contract expires after the 2020 season. For now, though, we, not to mention supporters of every other franchise, must envy Angels fans.
We also have to commend the team’s marketing department, as they could have just issued a typical shirt to honor Trout. Instead, they emblazoned an oversized headshot on the apparel item—a fitting move since, after all, since the team plays so close to Hollywood. The connection to Tinseltown aside, management made a wise marketing move in having its main draw’s face occupy the entire front of the shirt. Trout is undoubtedly a generational talent, and the Angels would be wise, come the 2020 offseason, to do all they can to keep him patrolling center field and crushing fastballs for them. Fans clamor to see what he will do next, and since he seems poised to enter his prime quite soon (that is a scary thought when one considers what he has already done), we could see the T-shirt idea becoming a part of a larger campaign to keep Trout an Angel until he is ready to hang up his cleats.
