SEATTLE — It was a belated high school reunion of sorts, except instead of in a hotel ballroom in South Jersey, it happened in the major leagues.
For the first time in their careers, Mike Trout and Buddy Kennedy, baseball legends of Millville (N.J.) High School, stood on the field in the same big-league stadium at the same time this week at T-Mobile Park.
“He texted me yesterday when he found out the news,” Trout said. “We plan on talking on the field. It’s cool to see him up here.”
As far as a comparison of their major league resumes goes, that wouldn’t exactly be fair.
Trout is Trout, one of the greatest players of his generation and a career Angel. Kennedy is a utility man who has hung around through bits and pieces of five seasons in The Show.
He was drafted out of Millville High in the fifth round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017, played for that team and four others before being traded from the San Francisco Giants to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.
But even though Trout is seven years older than Kennedy, the two know each other very well.
When Kennedy was a 12-year-old with a lot of potential, he found himself practicing in a local indoor baseball facility called “The Pit” alongside then-rising star Trout in the winter of 2011. Trout had been drafted in the first round in 2009 and would make his major-league debut in July 2011.
Trout took a liking to him because they shared a desire to be great. Soon enough, Trout asked him to keep joining him at facility during nightly 9 p.m. sessions.
“That was a tough one for me because I was in middle school,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “But I asked my dad and he said it was OK as long as I didn’t get too tired.
By the time Kennedy made the Millville varsity team as a freshman, his lifting buddy had already been named American League Rookie of the Year, had finished second in the AL MVP voting twice, and was in the midst of the first of his three MVP campaigns, the 2014 season.
Not surprisingly, Millville’s home games were now being played on the newly renamed Mike Trout Field.
It didn’t take long for Kennedy, who primarily played third base in high school, to attract scouts and attention. It also didn’t take long for him to motivate himself by trying to go after Trout’s multitude of school and state records.
“I was not a home run hitter, so there’s no way I was getting anywhere near the 18 he hit in one season,” Kennedy said. “But one season I tried to go after his [.531] batting average. I got close. I think I was five points off.”
Roy Hallenbeck coached both players and saw a lot of similarities at the prep level.
“I don’t want to be cliché, but Buddy Kennedy was Mike Trout all over again,” Hallenbeck said by phone. “I’m not comparing him to Mike because he’s his own guy, but for that level he was just dominant. He started for us for four years, and he was an impact guy for four years. That level of dominance we’ve only seen twice. It was Mike and Buddy.”
They are not the only two players from Millville High to reach the majors. That list also includes Steve Yerkes, a second baseman and shortstop who played from 1909-16, Andy Lapihuska, who pitched in four games for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1942-43, and infielder Larry Milbourne, who played for six teams from 1974-84.
But the bond shared by Trout and Kennedy has continued to strengthen over the years. The two still work out together in the offseason, only this time it’s at the gym in Trout’s house.
“You can’t say he never forgot where he came from, because he never left,” Hallenbeck said of Trout. “He’s rooted here.”
He’s also still rooted in the work ethic that helped make him a future Hall of Famer, according to Kennedy.
“When I first started seeing how great he is on the field, it was amazing for me because I saw all the work he put in,” Kennedy said. “It was the little things, the different posture stuff to get you into like a great position to hit, or, or defensively, working on first steps and everything.
“There’s major league players, and then there’s that one percent.”
As for Kennedy, Trout said he’d like to see him get more of a shot at this level.
“I know he wants to be playing more,” Trout said. “But I know how hard he works, and I know he’ll just keep working hard.”