NEW YORK - As he mindlessly shagged balls in the vast Yankee Stadium outfield Monday afternoon, that recent rumor about Mike Trout didn't seem so crazy at all.
Three weeks ago, a Boston newspaper suggested the scuffling Los Angeles Angels were considering moving their Roy Hobbs-ian centerfielder. If they did, it said, the Yankees would be the most logical destination.
Now, on this blue-sky afternoon, as he stood where Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle had become Yankee legends - center field in the Bronx - Trout was framed by the magnitude of that pin-striped possibility.
The retired numbers of those two centerfielders and other Yankee greats, few of whom began their careers more impressively than Trout, were visible high above one of his broad shoulders.