Failure, Fame, & Mindset| I-80 Sports
TAPE #006 FROM THE I-80 SPORTS BLOG ARCHIVE
I asked Mike Trout what made him great. He spent a surprising amount of the next ten minutes talking about failure.
He was 24 years old.
By March 25th, 2016 when this interview was conducted, Mike Trout was already Mike Trout.
He was 24 years old. He had already won an American League MVP, finished second three other times, become one of baseball’s biggest stars, and reached the point where asking how somebody that young had become that good didn’t seem remotely unreasonable.
So that’s what I asked him.
But listening to this interview again years later, the interesting part isn’t really a secret workout, a hitting tip, or some hidden piece of baseball wisdom.
It’s how consistently Trout comes back to the same handful of ideas.
Work hard. Stay positive. Accept failure. Have fun. Prove people wrong.
Again and again.
I also ask him about being heckled in center field, his first home run, becoming financially secure before turning 25, finishing second in MVP voting, dealing with fame, women, his longtime girlfriend, diet and travel, Bryce Harper, commercials, and the weird off-field obligations that arrive when you become one of the most recognizable players in baseball.
At one point, I ask him what it’s like when a thousand opposing fans are screaming at him while he’s standing alone in center field.
His answer tells you quite a bit about Mike Trout:
“I enjoy it. You know, it just makes me—I want to prove them wrong.”
This is Mike Trout before his second MVP.
Before the next decade of his career had been written.
And before any of us knew exactly where the story was going.
Listen to the Original Mike Trout Interview
Mike Trout at 24: The Original 2016 Interview
Runtime: 10:25
Interview subject: Mike Trout
Interviewer: Paul Eide
Recorded: March 25, 2016
Facilitated by: Tim Mead, Los Angeles Angels
Originally conducted for: AskMen
Original format: Audio interview
Archive designation: THE TAPE ROOM — TAPE #006
Transcript status: Complete archival transcript
This recording is preserved as part of the original I-80 Sports Blog interview archive. The transcript below has been lightly cleaned for punctuation, paragraphing, speaker identification, and obvious transcription artifacts while retaining the conversational language of the original recording.
What Mike Trout Discusses
Over roughly ten minutes, Trout talks with me about:
- Being called “The Millville Meteor”
- The extremely sophisticated road heckle: “Here, fishy, fishy”
- Using hostile crowds as motivation
- His first Major League home run
- Why he still got nervous before games
- Confidence, preparation, and accepting failure
- Being doubted as an East Coast kid
- Becoming extraordinarily successful at 24
- Why money wasn’t what motivated him
- Wanting to win a World Series
- Repeatedly finishing near the top of MVP voting
- What everyday fame was actually like
- Why he tried to remain accessible to fans
- His longtime girlfriend
- Diet, training, and the grind of MLB travel
- Constant comparisons to Bryce Harper
- Learning to do commercials and on-camera work
- His involvement with BODYARMOR
“You’re Going to Fail a Lot in This Game”
One of the most interesting parts of the interview comes when I ask Trout where his confidence came from.
His answer isn’t complicated.
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, just working hard every day. Just trying to take what you’re working on in the cage to the field.
The biggest thing for me is stay positive. You’re going to fail a lot in this game. It’s a tough game. You’re not going to get a hit every time. You’re going to fail the majority of the time.
You just got to accept it. Just stay positive. Get the negative out of your head.
That answer becomes something of a thesis for the entire interview.
For somebody who had experienced an almost absurd amount of success at an absurdly young age, Trout talks surprisingly often about failure.
Not avoiding it.
Accepting it.
Mike Trout Still Got Nervous
I ask whether somebody playing at his level ever feels anything other than confident.
The answer is yes.
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, you’re obviously going to get the jitters because your adrenaline is rushing. You’re excited. You’re anxious.
And yeah, like I said, just always have fun. That’s the biggest thing. And you got to be confident.
Earlier, Trout tells me those nerves never really disappeared after his first game.
MIKE TROUT: No, you can’t forget that. It happens before every game for me.
Then comes one of the best lines in the tape:
“If you don’t get that stuff and you’re not having fun, you shouldn’t be playing.”
“I Want to Prove Them Wrong”
I ask Trout what it’s like standing in center field on the road while opposing fans unload on him.
He doesn’t describe it as something he learned to ignore.
He uses it.
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, no, I enjoy it. You know, it just makes me—I want to prove them wrong.
That’s the biggest thing about this game. You’re trying to prove some people wrong.
You try to do your best at everything. It’s just the icing on the cake if you go deep, you make a great play, and they’re speechless.
Later, I ask why he was able to reach the Major Leagues when the odds of getting there are microscopic.
He goes right back to the same idea.
MIKE TROUT: Just trying to prove people wrong. A lot of people doubted me. A lot of people didn’t like that I was an East Coast kid.
Just worked hard. Angels gave me an opportunity, and I took full advantage of it.
The Money Wasn’t the Goal
By this point, Trout had already signed a contract that removed ordinary financial concerns from his life.
So I ask what happens to your goals when money effectively disappears from the equation.
His answer is strikingly simple.
MIKE TROUT: Obviously, the money’s great and everything. But, you know, I just try to get better each and every year.
Then he gets to what he actually wants:
“I’m trying to win some—I’m trying to win a ring. Just get a ring.”
That’s especially interesting preserved exactly where it was said: March 2016.
It wasn’t a retrospective explanation of what mattered to him.
It was Trout, at 24, telling me what he wanted next.
Mike Trout on Finishing Second
At this point in Trout’s career, MVP voting had become almost comical.
So I ask the sophisticated journalistic question:
How annoying is that? When you get home at night, are you just like, “Damn it”?
Trout doesn’t bite.
MIKE TROUT: No, like I said, I just try to be the best I can. Obviously, coming second kind of stinks a little bit.
You can’t take it away from the guys that came in first. Donaldson had a great year last year. Miguel Cabrera obviously has a great year every year.
It’s a tough league. You’ve got a great group of guys. It’s the best game in the world. We’re always trying to get better. You can’t take it away from other guys.
A few months after this conversation, Trout would win the 2016 American League MVP.
What Was It Like to Be Mike Trout?
I also wanted to know something much less statistical:
Could Mike Trout go to a 7-Eleven and buy a soda?
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, it gets a little crazy. I try to avoid as much of it as possible, but I try to live a life. I just try to be myself.
I tell him he seems remarkably humble for somebody living in circumstances where it would be very easy not to be.
His explanation goes back to childhood.
He remembers being the kid at the ballpark trying to get an autograph or picture from somebody he admired—and remembers how it felt when he couldn’t.
That’s why attention from fans had a different meaning to him.
MIKE TROUT: I was always told, you know, if you’re not wanting my autograph or not wanting a picture, that means I’m not doing nothing, you know, good.
The grammar is Trout’s.
So is the point.
Mike Trout, Women, and a Nine-Year Relationship
Because this interview was originally conducted for AskMen, I also ask Trout a question that probably wouldn’t be the first question on MLB Network.
How exactly does Mike Trout deal with women coming after him?
His answer lasts approximately five seconds.
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, I got a great girlfriend, so I’m not looking for anybody right now. Yeah, I’ve been dating her for nine years now, so I’m happy where I’m at.
Well.
That settled that.
Mike Trout on Bryce Harper
Then I commit one of the great sins of interviewing Mike Trout in the mid-2010s.
I ask him about Bryce Harper.
PAUL EIDE: Does it get tiresome to be constantly compared to Bryce Harper or have that conversation come up all the time?
MIKE TROUT: You know, I don’t really think about it too much.
PAUL EIDE: As I bring it up again.
Trout laughs it off and gives Harper credit.
MIKE TROUT: Yeah, no, it don’t bother me. You know, he’s an exciting player in the league, obviously MVP last year.
And so, you know, he plays the game hard and, you know, you can’t take that away from him.
And, you know, it’s just—we both came up at the same time, and we’re both young. So that’s why we get compared to each other.
That’s a nice little time capsule by itself.
In March 2016, Trout versus Harper wasn’t historical baseball discourse.
It was happening in real time.
The Weird Part of Becoming Mike Trout
Near the end, I ask Trout what part of becoming a superstar he never expected he’d have to learn.
Not hitting Major League pitching.
Not playing center field.
Commercials.
MIKE TROUT: I think doing commercials and stuff. It’s pretty weird for us to get used to it. Doing on-camera things.
And it’s a little different, but it’s all right now.
There is something wonderfully Mike Trout about one of baseball’s biggest stars describing celebrity media obligations as essentially:
Yeah. Kinda weird. It’s all right now.
Why This Tape Matters
There are thousands of Mike Trout interviews.
That’s not what makes this one interesting.
What makes this tape worth preserving is when it happened.
This is March 25, 2016.
Trout is 24.
He has already reached a level of baseball success almost nobody reaches at any age, but much of the career we now associate with Mike Trout hasn’t happened yet.
So we’re not listening to an older superstar reconstruct his early career from memory.
We’re hearing him inside that moment.
He talks about still getting nervous.
He talks about failure.
He talks about people doubting him.
He talks about trying to stay positive.
He talks about wanting a ring.
He talks about being compared constantly with Bryce Harper.
He talks about suddenly having to learn how to be a celebrity when all he really wanted to do was play baseball.
And throughout the conversation, the same philosophy keeps resurfacing:
Work. Compete. Stay positive. Have fun. Prove people wrong.
The interesting thing about listening to this tape years later isn’t that Mike Trout reveals some magical secret to becoming Mike Trout.
It’s almost the opposite.
At 24 years old, one of the best baseball players on Earth describes his entire approach in remarkably ordinary terms.
Then he goes back to work.
Key Moments
00:00 — The Angels connect me with Mike Trout
Tim Mead introduces the call, and Trout joins the interview.
00:38 — The Millville Meteor
I ask whether anybody actually still calls him by his famous nickname.
00:46 — “Here, fishy, fishy”
Trout reveals the cutting-edge psychological warfare deployed by opposing baseball fans.
00:50 — Using hecklers as motivation
Trout explains why hostile crowds make him want to prove people wrong.
00:56 — Remembering his first home run
Trout talks about hitting it with family and friends in attendance.
01:08 — Why the nerves never disappeared
He explains why getting an adrenaline rush is still part of loving the game.
01:18 — Confidence at the highest level
I ask whether Mike Trout ever feels anything other than confident.
01:24 — Accepting failure
Trout explains why positivity matters in a sport where even great hitters fail most of the time.
01:32 — Why Mike Trout made it
He talks about doubters, being an East Coast prospect, hard work, and getting his opportunity with the Angels.
02:02 — The secret to success at 24
Work hard. Stay positive.
02:10 — Money versus the next goal
Trout explains why financial security hasn’t changed what he’s chasing.
02:26 — “Just get a ring”
The clearest statement of what Trout wants next.
02:34 — Finishing second in MVP voting
I ask whether repeatedly coming up second pisses him off.
03:12 — What it’s like being Mike Trout in public
Can one of baseball’s biggest stars just run into a store?
03:35 — Why Trout stayed humble
He remembers being the kid trying to get an autograph.
04:07 — The AskMen question
I ask one of baseball’s biggest stars how he deals with women.
04:16 — His nine-year relationship
That question gets shut down rather efficiently.
04:25 — Diet, workouts, and MLB travel
Trout discusses staying healthy through a Major League season.
05:12 — Life on the road
Late-night arrivals, sleep, and the relentless MLB schedule.
05:44 — Mike Trout versus Bryce Harper
I ask about the comparison everybody was making.
05:49 — “As I bring it up again”
I immediately acknowledge the irony of asking him whether he’s tired of being asked about Bryce Harper.
06:22 — The strange parts of superstardom
Trout says commercials and on-camera work were among the things he unexpectedly had to learn.
07:00 — BODYARMOR
Trout discusses his relationship with the sports drink brand and why he used it.
10:25 — End of tape
Related Exhibits and Stories
This interview originally existed outside THE TAPE ROOM as part of my work during the original I-80 era. Any surviving stories built from this conversation should remain as the contemporary editorial record.
This page is the permanent archival home of the underlying interview.
The story is what I made from the conversation.
The tape is the conversation itself.
Artifact Record
Archive: I-80 Sports Blog — THE TAPE ROOM
Exhibit: #006
Subject: Mike Trout
Interviewer: Paul Eide
Facilitated by: Tim Mead, Los Angeles Angels
Recording date: March 25, 2016
Runtime: 10:25
Original purpose: AskMen interview
Artifact type: Original interview recording
Transcript: Complete archival transcript
Primary subjects: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, confidence, failure, fame, MVP voting, Bryce Harper, MLB travel, training, and BODYARMOR
Provenance: Original interview from the Paul Eide / I-80 Sports Blog archive
From the I-80 Sports Blog Tape Room
THE TAPE ROOM preserves the original interviews, lost conversations, and primary-source recordings collected during my years running the I-80 Sports Blog.
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Some became articles. Some became podcasts. Some contain pieces of sports and pop-culture history I’d completely forgotten were sitting on a hard drive.
And some have barely been heard since the day I hit RECORD.
The tapes are the evidence.
