Google sez Dodger Stadium is 31 miles from Angel Stadium. (If I were Trout I wouldn't want to drive for three hours, either...)

On an x/y-axis, where x id how good you are at your sports, and y is how well known you are by the general public, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady would be in the upper right corner: The best ever at their sport, and have name-ID among even complete non-sports fans.

Mike Trout continues to be pretty much as low in the bottom right corner as you can get: All-time great at his sport, and completely anonymous among non-baseball fans. Some of it isn't his doing, but at a certain point, it must be acknowledged that a lot of it is his doing.

Is there anybody in the last 50 years who was as good at football, basketball, or baseball as Mike Trout, but as completely unknown in the general public?

Is there anybody in the last 50 years who was as good at football, basketball, or baseball as Mike Trout

Other than your already mentioned Jordan and Brady, no.

Though with football, I suppose you could argue that there was an offensive tackle who was as good at that position as Brady was to QB, and would be anonymous walking around.

I doubt most baseball players could be picked out of a lineup outside of A) really famous ones and B) your hometown team. Ditto football players outside of the "skilled" positions.

Tim Duncan is infinitely more recognizable than Trout, but he's the only one superstar I could think of that is only famous/recognizable for his on the court achievements.

Is there anybody in the last 50 years who was as good at football, basketball, or baseball as Mike Trout, but as completely unknown in the general public?

Pujols was pretty anonymous with non-hardcore fans. I don't know if his peak quite matches Trout by WAR, but this is a guy who won 3 MVPs in 5 years. Plus (unlike Trout) he was in the playoffs regularly.

Among casual sports fans I knew, Pujols didn't register at all, unlike recent baseball stars like Griffey, Bonds, or Jeter. In retrospect this seems like a clear signal that MLB had fully become a regional rooting interest and no longer had the national notoriety of the NFL or even the NBA.

I would bet that Trout is better known and more recognizable among ordinary Americans than the guy who's won the past two MVPs in the NBA.

Well, Jokic is 6-11 so I think he'll stand out in a crowd a bit more than Trout. :-)

As noted Pujols wasn't much of a celeb. What little celeb value Miggy has comes from the triple crown. I don't know that I'd recognize Verlander or Scherzer if I bumped into them. Nobody was much interested in celbrating Bonds. Griffey and McGwire-Sosa might have been the last time baseball had that sort of (positive) public recognition. Then PEDs in baseball (but not football or basketball) put the sport in a negative light. Since then it's been safe, corporatized entertainment (not that it wasn't always).

EDIT: I'll add that it is an interesting question as to how "hip" the NBA will be in the US with LeBron leaving (eventually) and the much greater influence of non-US players like Jokic and Giannis. The latter might help internationally (or it might not) ... I suspect Giannis jerseys sell quite well, what about Jokic?

Jokic snuck into the top 15 in jersey sales in the 2nd half of 2022 right at #15. Giannis was at #7.

Though LeBron is #1 in jersey sales (and Curry & Durant also rank in the top 5), the top 15 still has a fair amount of young players 25 and under - Luka, Trae, Ja, Tatum, Booker, and LaMelo.

Feels like the NBA is in pretty good shape going forward without LeBron.

I doubt most baseball players could be picked out of a lineup outside of A) really famous ones and B) your hometown team.

Only somewhat related, I once walked by a hotel in SF where there was a modest crowd of autograph seekers. I saw an athletic-looking, well-dressed man get out of a towncar and sign a few autographs before disappearing into a hotel.

I asked a kid who that was, and he said Magglio Ordonez. I couldn't believe it! This was 2006, Maggs was a huge star, and I followed baseball very closely (and had just attended the A's/Tigers tilt the night before).

Point being, a lot of these guys can't be picked out of a lineup when they are in their street clothes.

Semantics of course but I don't know that we could call Maggs "huge." Maybe in Chicago during the Sox years or Detroit later but not in any generic baseball fan sense much less causal fan/general public sense. He made plenty of AS teams but his only start was his last one in 2007 -- I don't know if he was voted in or a replacement, he did end up leading the league in BA so maybe that was it.

That one season he hit 363 with 54 doubles, both very impressive but that was the only black ink of his career. I don't think we'd expect a Maggs-level player to have wide recognition. (OK, he also once led with 27 GDP and with 15 SFs but as far as I know, chicks have never dug the sac fly.)

I wouldn't know Mike Trout if he showed up in the next five minutes and mowed my yard.

Though I would certainly appreciate it.

In retrospect this seems like a clear signal that MLB had fully become a regional rooting interest and no longer had the national notoriety of the NFL or even the NBA.

I wonder if this hasn't always been more true than we think, not just for MLB but all sports in general.

Sure, once upon a time, Babe Ruth was maybe the most famous man in the world. But how many MLB players, really, have become household names that non-baseball fans would really know, on a nationwide scale? There have been some here and there that broke through, but I think it's probably always been the exception for big generational stars that ALSO have some media savvy/notoriety, more than the rule.

And I think that's probably true for other sports, too. How many current NFL stars are instantly recognizable to non-sports fans? Brady, for sure. Maybe Gronk (if he's still a "current" player), given how Brady-adjacent he is and how he's actively sought out other non-football media roles. Aaron Rodgers maybe. But after that? I'm not sure. Even Mahomes - he does commercials that play constantly during games, but does he break through to non-sports fans? I have my doubts. Rodgers at least had Jeopardy.

In the NBA - LeBron, sure. After that? Steph Curry probably. I'm not sure Durant breaks through the sports bubble. Probably the guys that are married to whoever the Basketball Wives are, honestly.

Speaking of which, somewhat along those lines, Verlander is probably one of the most famous MLB players, just because he's married to a very famous supermodel and had a sex tape with her. Or so I've been told.

Shohei Ohtani is pretty famous.

Each sport has a different ability to cater to fame. Basketball has fewer members per team, and the star has a disproportionate amount of value in comparison to other sports so it only makes a bit of sense that it will produce easier to identify players (add in of course the unusual factor of the height of a basketball player) At the same time, even Randy Johnson might not have been as easy to pick out of a crowd as say Shaq to non fans.

But at their peaks, I'm fairly certain Jeter, Griffey jr was much more identifiable than Brady is even today. Football players have the issue of the helmet, and the 'freak' bodies are the offensive/defensive lines which nobody knows who they are. (they would more likely be thought of as wrestlers than football players if you ask a rando looking at them.)

Some of the issue is the "cool" factor among younger non-sports fans. My two daughters are 18 and 17, and generally don't follow sports at all. But they know two kinds of players because of pop culture:

1) A number of quarterbacks;
2) A surprising number of NBA players.

The NBA is definitely the "cool" sport for younger people. My kids get so much of their media consumption from TikTok, and it has a ton of references to NBA players. It's the big names, like Lebron and Steph Curry. Durant and Greak Freak are up there, too. But it is also some players you might not expect, like: Joel Embiid, LaMelo Ball, Zion Williamson, Trae Young, and Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat. Jack Harlow is a very popular rapper/singer, and one of his big hits is named "Tyler Herro". I asked my then-16-year-old daughter about it, and she doesn't know #### about the NBA, and she didn't even flinch - it's about the "hot" player on the Heat.

Also, the NBA uniforms are an important part of hip hop culture, which long ago became a commonplace part of Millennial and GenZ style.

And, as somebody said earlier in this thread, Nikola Jokic may be the closest thing to Trout right now...although I think there are probably more people walking around in the U.S. with a Jokic jersey/tshirt than a Trout one.

#6 you absolutely would recognize scherzer if you've ever seen his eyes. They haunt my nightmares

which one - the green one or the blue one - haunts you more?

and warning: yes, Max's two dogs really do have non-matching eyes as well. that's why he and his wife adopted them.

I won't rule it out for a two-color-eye person but I can't tell you the color of any male human being's eyes (other than mine although I insist on continuing to call them "blue") and if you polled all of the women I've had relations with, I'd be embarrassed by my score even in that small subset of humanity.

6, 15 & 16 Yes, who would you mistake Scherzer for, jane Seymour?

At the risk of starting a color argument, Scherzer's eyes are brown (left eye) and blue (right eye), not green and blue. At least according to him. “I've always celebrated it. Whether you like it or not, that’s who I am," Scherzer said. “I got one blue and one brown, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

I don't know that I'd recognize Verlander or Scherzer if I bumped into them.

Ah, yes, you would. As you noted already Scherzer's eyes don't match and if Verlander is with his wife, I'm sure you'll do a double take there anyway.

Also, these guys are pretty darn big, they'd stick out a bit in a crowd.

Shohei Ohtani is pretty famous.

And there probably aren't a thousand people in America who don't watch at least a hundred baseball games a year who could pick him out of a group of five random young Japanese guys.

Is there anybody in the last 50 years who was as good at football, basketball, or baseball as Mike Trout, but as completely unknown in the general public?

Connor McDavid is one of the best hockey players that ever lived, and at his absolute peak, dominating hockey, the closest thing to Gretzky since Gretzky. No one who isn't a hockey fan has any idea who he is.

You protest that you specified football, basketball, or baseball, but perhaps that is the point--that as far as modern pop culture is concerned, there are only two major sports.

Scherzer's eyes are brown (left eye) and blue (right eye), not green and blue.

heh.
my eyes are blue, but my first driver's license claimed they are "GRY" - which is what, like a wolf?

even pre- 9-11, DMV people told me that it was way, way more trouble than it's worth to try to fix it.

nowadays? I'll die with these "gray" - "grey?" - eyes designation.

Kinda funny, my eyes are definitely gray but listed on my license as BLU. I don't know if Pennsylvania has a GRY designation (surely the DMV was just being agnostic on the gray/grey brouhaha).

Kinda funny, my eyes are definitely gray but listed on my license as BLU. I don't know if Pennsylvania has a GRY designation (surely the DMV was just being agnostic on the gray/grey brouhaha).

I think genetically there is only brown or blue. Gray, green, etc. and just shades of blue.

gray/grey

The difference between U.S. (gray) & UK (grey) spelling, I believe.

I feel like "Could an average person spot this guy out in public" is sort of like the sports version of "Can you identify [country x] on a globe?" I'm not 100% sure what it's supposed to mean that Mike Trout isn't mobbed when he like, goes to the farmer's market.

At the same time, even Randy Johnson might not have been as easy to pick out of a crowd as say Shaq to non fans.

Have you seen Randy Johnson? When he walks by milk curdles, flowers wilt, priests cross themselves, and women clutch their children to their breasts.


As for what this is all supposed to mean - baseball fans have this curious fear that baseball no longer has significant cultural cache. Why that's supposed to matter is never made clear. Probably has something to do with getting old and fearing the coming grip of the reaper (or Randy Johnson). Same reason I don't like it that I have to wear glasses now.

I feel like "Could an average person spot this guy out in public" is sort of like the sports version of "Can you identify [country x] on a globe?" I'm not 100% sure what it's supposed to mean that Mike Trout isn't mobbed when he like, goes to the farmer's market.

It means that he isn't a movie or TV star.

I guess I'm a weirdo because I have bumped into 2 marginal MLers at places like Subway (Bob Henley), on a college campus (Rich Amaral), and a full-fledged, easy-to-spot Barry Bonds and I knew who they all were immediately.

Henley was floored I knew who he was and was thrilled to sign my subway wrapper (its in a drawer somewhere).

Amaral joined our "just for fun" baseball game and went 4-5 with 3 HR. Even marginal MLers playing against random scrubs are absolute beasts. I reassessed how many standard deviations better at hitting even guys hitting .210 are than regular folks.

Bonds....yeah......I got his autograph at least. He wasn't rude but he wasn't going to do anything fun with us.

If I saw Trout, I'd let him knew I knew who he was, but without spoiling his cover, since, I mean...I'm older and I know that is what he wants. This is why he signed with LAA rather than PHI or NYM/NYY. I do think he'll take a trade to Philly when he's crusty and half done though.

if Verlander is with his wife, I'm sure you'll do a double take there anyway.

If Verlander is with his wife, he will not be the one I am looking at.

I recognized David Price on the street, albeit right outside Fenway after he had pitched in the game for the Rays.

When I was young I could recognize a lot of Ottawa Rough Rider players. In fairness, one was my next door neighbor and I delivered the paper to another 3 of them and another was the vice-principal at a friend's school.

Different times. CFL players in the 60s didn't make much and could end up in a middle class neighborhood. Or would often hold down a second job.