Mike Trout, the Los Angeles Angels' superstar outfielder, has been the unquestioned best player in Major League Baseball for nearly a decade. His career statistics are staggering. His professionalism is lauded. He's a once-in-a-generation talent, following a proven path to retire as one of, if not the greatest baseball player of all-time.
And Trout's predecessor in Anaheim believes there's nothing holding the future Hall-of-Fame slugger back from further cementing his legacy.
"I played with him in 2011 and 2012, his locker was right next to mine, and it was his first year in 2011 and all he did was ask questions," former major league outfielder Torii Hunter told the Tiki and Tierney show on Wednesday. "And he still asks questions. He's the best player on the planet because he still wants to take on so much wisdom. Anybody that wants to ask questions and wants to get better every year, that guy has a chance.
"The key is to stay healthy, and I think Mike Trout is that guy who takes care of his body, who goes out and his mindset is like, 'I've got to play every day' and he plays every game like it's his last. This guy, if he keeps this up, and he stays consistent and stays healthy, he's going to be one of the best players to ever play this game."
Trout, who turns 30 this August, is the favorite to win the American League MVP award in 2021 (2-1 odds), according to the Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill. During the 2020 abbreviated season, he slashed .281/.390/.603 with 17 home runs and 46 RBI -- perhaps a down year to Trout's ridiculous standards -- and finished in the top-five in AL MVP voting for a ninth consecutive season.
Hunter, who retired from MLB in 2015 after playing 19 seasons, would've never been one of Trout's mentors if his grandfather hadn't forced him to watch Chicago Cubs baseball as a kid, growing up in Arkansas during the 1980s. And it wasn't until Hunter turned 9-years-old that he gravitated toward the game, idolizing Hall-of-Fame slugger Andre Dawson.
"The only reason I started playing was because of a black player [in Dawson] and his face was on television all the time," Hunter said. "And I was seeing that, and I gravitated toward baseball. Had I not seen a black player in Chicago at that time with Andre Dawson, maybe I would've stuck with football...
"At 16-years-old, I was able to go to Korea and experience flying for the first time and experience a different culture. And that was the only reason I gravitated toward baseball, because it gave me a life experience... It made me see things differently. It broadened my horizons. And that's when I really fell in love with the game of baseball and wanted to play it [professionally]."
Hunter is aware that barriers still exist for Black players in baseball. According to a USA Today report, Black players made up just 7.7-percent of major league rosters in 2019, and last season, the number was once again close to 8-percent.
While Hunter has appreciated Baseball's initiatives to increase youth participation in inner-city communities, he believes the league can never do enough. And as a former big leaguer, he's taken it upon himself to help the cause.
"It's up to us as players to get out there," Hunter said. "Just this last weekend, I hosted here in Frisco, Texas an HBCU tournament... And we had about 5,000 or 6,000 people come through for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday's games, playing at the [Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate] Frisco RoughRiders' professional stadium. These kids had never played in a professional stadium, and they were so excited. They were college kids, and I'm going to try to do it every year...
"That's how you do it. You get out and you brand it, and make sure you give these kids the stage where they can perform... That's where it starts. And that's what I'm trying to do, and get that same sentiment and try to bring it out into baseball as well, so kids can see someone like myself, who played 19 years in the major leagues... they see me there amongst those players, it encourages them."
Hunter, who finished his career with over 2,400 hits, nearly 500 doubles, and nine Gold Glove awards, was on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2021, and received 9.5-percent of the vote.
The entire conversation between Hunter and Tiki and Tierney can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Tiki and Tierney Show on Twitter @TikiAndTierney and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.