During Cactus League play on Wednesday afternoon, there were two grand slam home runs hit, one each by two of the biggest names in the game today. And even though both games were meaningless Spring Training Games and will have zero impact on how the 2024 regular season plays out, there is a glaring difference between these two future Hall of Famers.

That glaring difference isn’t that the Angels of Anaheim lost their meaningless Spring Training Game to the Oakland Athletics at Tempe Diablo Stadium by a score of 12-5, or that the Dodgers won their meaningless Spring Training Game against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch by a score of 12-9 on Wednesday afternoon, it’s that even with Angels future Hall of Famer Mike Trout‘s fifth inning grand slam and Dodgers future Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman‘s fourth inning grand slam, Trout will, in all likelihood, enter the sacred Halls of Cooperstown without a World Series ring and Freeman will do so with at least one and quite possibly (probably) more.

In no way is this piece meant to take anything away from or minimize Trout’s remarkable (thus far) three MLB MVP titles (that’s not a typo), 11 (ditto) All-Star appearances, nine (ditto) Silver Slugger Awards, two All-Star Game MVP Awards, and 2012 MLB Rookie of the Year title. It is simply to say that Angels owner Arte Moreno and Angels General Manager Perry Minasian are not the Dodgers Guggenheim Baseball Management Group or Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman, not by any stretch of the imagination.

Without beating this dead horse any further, if Mike Trout hopes to win a World Series ring, it will probably have to be with a team other than the Los Angeles California Anaheim Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose only World Series Championship came in 2002 when Mike Trout was 11 years old. And without pounding on Arte Moreno any further, this is the reason why fellow future Hall of Famer Shohei Ohtani is now wearing Dodger Blue instead of Angel Red. Heaven knows, it certainly isn’t the money.

Play Ball!

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