Tyler Kepner for the New York Times:

Trout is everything good about his sport. He plays with a joyous abandon, explosively and elegantly. He is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Jessica Cox, and still lives in Millville, N.J., where he was raised. He signs lots of autographs and is unfailingly cordial. Fame does not faze him.

Trout is LeBron James in spikes, Tom Brady out of shoulder pads, minus their championship rings. Also missing is something that barely matters to Trout but is so important to other athletes in his echelon: a brand.

For all the products he endorses, Trout has passed on many other opportunities. For all his success in the All-Star Game (two M.V.P. awards), he has never taken part in a home run derby or a World Baseball Classic. For all his Twitter followers (more than any other baseball player has), he does not use the platform to pontificate on the issues of the day, beyond the doings of his beloved Philadelphia Eagles.

There are baseball fans. And then there are baseball fans. You know, fans of the sport of baseball.

Which is surely why Kepner stipulated Trout is everything good about the sport rather than the game you see on TV.

Mike Trout is exactly my age. Or rather, one day younger. His stats — less the missing championships — put him within an arm’s reach of legendary players.

And yet we know nothing about him.

Honestly, I’d prefer Trout works to keep it that way. His humility and privacy-seeking approach to the profession is a breath of fresh air — one which other professional players should adopt and now which young baseball players should work to emulate.