{"id":74157,"date":"2025-07-19T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74157\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T01:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:45:09","slug":"deep-into-career-philadelphia-still-on-mike-trouts-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74157\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep into career, Philadelphia still on Mike Trout&#8217;s mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA \u2014 On a day when the Phillies unveiled the logo for the 2026 All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, 11-time All-Star Mike Trout returned to his roots.<\/p>\n<p>As usual, there was speculation about whether the Los Angeles outfielder will ever play for his hometown club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear it all the time,\u201d Trout, a native of Millville, N.J., said Friday. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m enjoying myself with this team in here. These guys come to the ballpark every day and play hard. It\u2019s hard not for me to see it, because I see it and hear it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trout, a three-time American League MVP, entered Friday\u2019s game with 395 career home runs and 995 RBIs. He still has close family and friends in South Jersey and remains a staple at Eagles games. His Angels, who have made the playoffs just once in his career without winning a series, entered with a record of 47-49, just four games back of an AL Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think, just being a South Jersey kid, I\u2019m always going to get it (about Philadelphia fans\u2019 fervor),\u201d said Trout, who turns 34 next month. \u201cGrowing up, I loved Philly. These are my sports team growing up. I know how (the fans) are, how they support their teams, and that\u2019s how I was growing up. Just the passion they have \u2026 you see it. They\u2019re faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trout, who played at Citizens Bank Park in high school during the Phillies\u2019 Carpenter Cup tournament, was playing only his sixth major league game at CBP. He entered 2-for-20 with seven strikeouts but supplied a double and an RBI single Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guy is a superstar,\u201d Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cI saw him when he first came up and he hit the ball as far as you could think. He runs down the first base line, it sounds like a horse, just big and strong and fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trout was drafted out of high school in 2009 and reached the majors two years later at age 19. His dominance and skill set brought to mind Mickey Mantle, but injuries eventually began landing him on the IL almost annually, often for extended periods.\u00a0He\u2019s a career .296 hitter with a .985 OPS, 214 stolen bases and nine Silver Slugger awards and has been a finalist for the Gold Glove award in center field.<\/p>\n<p>This season, he\u2019s in the DH slot as he recovers from a bone bruise to his left knee that kept him sidelined earlier in the season. Since returning on May 30, he\u2019s slashing .283\/.433\/.478 with eight homers and 23 RBIs in 41 games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be in the lineup, contributing,\u201d Trout said. \u201cYears past, it\u2019s just come to the ballpark, not be able to at least hit. That\u2019s been frustrating, that\u2019s been tough. To think about it, it\u2019s just how fast it\u2019s going. Just trying to enjoy every minute of it. The milestones are awesome. I\u2019m looking forward to hopefully getting them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also looking forward to the possibility of playing in an All-Star game at Citizens Bank Park next July 14.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would definitely mean a lot,\u201d Trout said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n<p>Right-hander Aaron Nola, who has been on the 60-day IL with a cracked rib, threw a bullpen session at CBP before Friday\u2019s game. He is slated to throw batting practice on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it goes really well, he\u2019ll have a bullpen (session) probably on Tuesday,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cAnd if that goes well, there\u2019s a chance he goes out (for a rehab assignment). A guy like that, who hasn\u2019t been on the IL for a long time, there\u2019s a tendency to get bored and itchy, and they\u2019re motivated. And I can see that in him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plan is for Nola to throw 35 pitches, or two innings, of batting practice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n<p>The Phillies unveiled the All-Star logo at a Center City ceremony Friday and held a pregame ceremony at the ballpark in which they invited back all their living former All-Stars.<\/p>\n<p>Next year will be the fourth time Philadelphia has hosted an All-Star game and the first since 1996. The first instance was 1943 (by the Athletics) and 1952 by the Phillies, both at Shibe Park, followed in 1976 and 1996 at Veterans Stadium. This is the first one at CBP, which opened in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"The logo for next year's MLB All-Star game at Citizens Bank Park.\" width=\"960\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/All-Star-Logo.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"1633129\" \/>The logo for next year\u2019s MLB All-Star game at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n<p>Originally Published: July 18, 2025 at 9:17 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 On a day when the Phillies unveiled the logo for the 2026 All-Star Game at Citizens&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1266,1448,2830,1311,2083,62,11104,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-74157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dtd","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114877374393967535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}