In between, the Chicago Cubs ended what may have been history’s most famous championship drought. In February, Tom Brady brought the New England Patriots back from a 25-point Super Bowl deficit. Last year, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers knocked off a seemingly unbeatable Warriors team in the NBA Finals. This is an athletic era of overblown narrative, of hyper-Hollywood endings. The one year they did make it, they lost the division series to the Kansas City Royals in three straight games. While the Dodgers, Astros, Nationals, and Red Sox ready their rosters for the postseason, the Angels figure to fall short again, for the sixth time in Trout’s seven seasons. Despite his brilliance, Trout appears in fewer commercials than Anthony Rizzo and Carlos Correa The New York Times called him “Baseball’s Best, Without the Brand.” His even-keel bearing might have something to do with this, but the chief culprit is the mediocrity of his team. He has also reclaimed his old spot in the daily attention of baseball fans worldwide-which, curiously, is not at the top. Trout re-joined the Angels after the midseason All-Star break, and in his time back, he’s been his usual self, doing everything a ballplayer can do about as well as it can be done. Gone too was the visible sense of mastery that always hangs around Trout, regardless of momentary success or failure: the comma of a swing, the strangely unhurried speed. Gone were his airborne catches at the outfield wall, his piston-footed stolen bases, his home runs scattered to every part of the park. Mike Trout, the 25-year-old centerfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, slid into second base one afternoon, tore a ligament in his thumb, and went on the disabled list for the first time in his career. For more than a month, from the end of May to the middle of July, baseball was without its best player.
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