Hindsight is everything, but looking back at the 2009 MLB draft, a multitude of fan bases have asked the same question: How did we not pick Mike Trout?
The greatest player of the past decade has been compared to the likes of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, but he fell all the way to the No. 25 overall pick in the draft 10 years ago. Everyone else's miss was the Angels’ jackpot, and perhaps no other team has been hurt more by Trout than the AL West rival A's.
In fact, the A's, who held the 13th pick in the draft, were fond of Trout. A's president Billy Beane and data analyst Farhan Zaidi -- now the Giants' president of baseball operations -- even went to see him play a high school game in Millville, N.J.
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"Farhan and I -- further proving the Peter Principle -- flew out together to go watch him, normally not a trip I would make, to see a high school outfielder from a small town across the country," Beane told ESPN's Keith Law. "Trout went like 0-for-5, popped out, so we didn't even get to see him run."
The A's had seen Trout show off his skills, however, and the Angels heard of word of their interest from none other than ... Trout's father.
"Jeff [Trout] called me, said [A's assistant GM] Dave Forst saw him hit three home runs in a weekend, and Jeff said, 'Well, he wants [Mike] to come to Oakland for a workout,' " Greg Morhardt, the Angels’ Northeast area scout, told Law. "I'm thinking if you spend the whole day with Mikey you're gonna take him and Billy's a smart guy. I'm thinking I've got to stop this."
Morhardt and Jeff Trout have a longstanding relationship. The two played with each other in the minor leagues in the 1980s, and they even were roommates during spring training.
Oakland Athletics
So, Morhardt made up a story that the Angels had a workout the same day as the A's, and did everything in his power to get an actual workout in place that day.
"If Billy had gotten him there, it would have been over," Morhardt said to Law. "You get Mike in your ballpark, and I don't know where he would have been hitting balls."
Trout has been to Billy's ballpark, and the A's have paid for it ever since. In 72 trips to Oakland, Trout has hit 16 home runs -- his second-most at any opposing ballpark -- and he has a .905 OPS at the Coliseum. Overall, Trout is batting .305 with 31 homers against the A's.
"Since then, Trout went on his own personal iron fleet in the Greyjoy,” Beane told Law. “He's the fourth Greyjoy, just destroying us, with a vengeance worse than Euron's to remind the A's they should have taken him.”
[RELATED: Wrapping our heads around that wild A's loss to Angels]
The A's wound up drafting USC shortstop Grant Green at No. 13. Green spent five seasons in the big leagues between four different teams -- A's, Angels, Giants, and Nationals -- and hit .248 with four home runs. He’s currently out of baseball.
Some history books are better left unopened.