My age 21 season

Last night, I sat down to watch the first couple innings of the MLB All Star game. I wanted to see how Matt Harvey would pitch, and after he was done, I kept the game on as background noise while I was piddling around on my computer.

So I am sitting on the couch of my apartment, and the first pitch of the game is a blistering 97 mile-per-hour tailing fastball on the outer half of the plate, and the batter ripped it opposite field down the first base line and busted into second base with a head first slide for a double.

That batter was Mike Trout, and he is 6 month's younger than I am. 22 year old all-stars are uncommon, but not extraordinarily rare. Al Kaline was 20 years old, and Bryce Harper was 20 when he was named last year as a rookie. In fact, Manny Machado is only 21 years old, and he was Trout's teammate last night.

What makes Mike Trout special is last year in his age 20 season, he had one of the best season's in baseball history. His 10.9 wins above replacement (by Fangraphs calculations) was good enough for 21st ALL TIME, and he came one stolen base short of joining the 30-50 club, something that has only been done twice in baseball history.

Trout is hitting at the same level this season, and playing damn good defense in the outfield on top of it all. After he hit that leadoff double, I googled some stuff about Mike Trout.  Apparently, he dates a supermodel, makes over $500,000 a year playing baseball, and is a genuinely nice guy.

Needless to say, I am a little bit jealous of Mike Trout. I don't have a job that pays $500,000 a year. In fact I am in the middle of looking for a job that pays me anything at all. Last year I finished up my last year of school, and I would say that I did pretty good in the classroom and with my on-campus job. I did not, however, have the 21st best year ever as a student, or as a journalist. Not even close.

I would feel really bad that a guy younger than me is much better at his job, at a younger age, than I ever will be at my job. But the more I think about it, some guys are just really damn good. So, Mr. Mike Trout, I will tip my hat to you and say good day sir.

Nice hit, by the way. I liked the way you went with the pitch last night.