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Mike Trout, Angels respond to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's comments on star

Gabe Lacques
USA TODAY
Mike Trout is a two-time AL MVP.

In a startling rebuke of Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday issued a vigorous defense of All-Star outfielder Mike Trout, touting his commitment to promoting the game and his work in the community. 

The Angels' statement, which calls Trout "an exceptional ambassador for the game," comes one day after Manfred told a gathering of the Baseball Writers' Assn. of America that Trout's lack of widespread popularity among casual sports fans was due in part to his hesitance to participate in activities that might promote him. 

"Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn't want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time," Manfred said in the hours before MLB's All-Star Game at Nationals Park. "I think we could help him make his brand very big.

"But he has to make a decision to engage. It takes time and effort."

The Angels fired back in kind on Wednesday, with a withering statement that did not mention Manfred by name but certainly made clear who they were referencing.

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Trout issued his own statement a few hours later, saying he was ready to get back on the field. 

Trout, an affable and fan-friendly character whose lack of flamboyance off the field belies his transcendent performance on it, has not connected with the public in a widespread fashion like stars from other sports, nurturing a long-running narrative about baseball's inability to promote its players. 

Tuesday night, he produced another star turn in baseball's All-Star Game, hitting a home run, winning a stirring showdown with National League starter Max Scherzer and wearing a microphone on the Fox game broadcast as he patrolled center field.

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