Mike Trout is baseball's most notable Pokémon Go enthusiast
In news that shouldn’t shock anyone, Mike Trout is obsessed with Pokémon Go.
The Los Angeles Angels superstar admitted as much this weekend, adding his name to the millions upon millions of people who scour the earth looking to capture digital “pocket monsters.”
Pokemon Go has hit Major League Baseball. Mike Trout bounded into the clubhouse today asking, “Are there any Pokemon in here?”
— Pedro Moura (@pedromoura) July 15, 2016
Probably not, Mike. Otherwise general manager Billy Eppler would be trying to sign them to help fill out a struggling lineup.
For those not familiar with the Pokémon Go, it’s a new free app for iPhones and Androids that takes you into an alternate universe that overlays reality. As for the gameplay, I’ll turn that over to Forbes:
Last week, Niantic Labs released a new augmented reality game featuring the monsters from the video game series, and it’s called Pokémon GO. The basic premise is the same as the normal games: players have to capture, train and fight Pokemon. The big difference is that the Pokémon are now located in the real world, at least, sort of. Pokémon GO is a GPS enabled game that asks the players to walk around their neighborhoods and hunt down Pokémon, which the game triggers at semi-random physical locations. When they find one, it activates the phone’s camera and shows you the Pokémon.
Chances are there’s a Pokémon lurking behind you right now. If you don’t have the app though, you’re missing out on an opportunity to throw poke balls at it.
Users are encouraged to keep the app open so they won’t miss an opportunity to capture a Pokémon. So all of those people you saw staring at their phone earlier today were probably in the middle of a mission. It’s possible you’ve even seen it at your local minor-league ballpark, as some teams have already hosted events related to the app.
As for Trout, he seems to be keeping his obsession contained for the most part. That’s a good sign. If we eventually see him wandering around the outfield checking his phone, then we’ll be concerned.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
