In 2009, before he was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels, Mike Trout had committed to play baseball at East Carolina University. Because Trout has gone on to have the most historically significant career of his generation, that alternative history has always been delicious: What if he'd gone to college? How would it have changed the course of history, for Trout and the sport? How would it have changed our own lives?
That what-if exercise has become even more profound in the past few months because of one simple fact: Had he gone to college, it's almost certain that Mike Trout would have been on the 2017 Houston Astros.