Came across this yesterday, while looking at the Mike Trout wiki page.

” … nicknamed The Millville Meteor”.

What?

The Millville Meteor? Mike Trout?

Has anyone ever actually called him that? Has any sports writer used it in a game story?  “And then the Millville Meteor laced a three-bagger …”

If this were a century ago, maybe.

So, where did this nickname-come-lately come from?

Well, Millville is the name of his high school. The Millville Senior High School Thunderbolts in Millville, New Jersey. Though he was born in Vineland, a city twice as large as neighboring Millville. And Vineland seems to claim him, too.

And it’s not just you and me who were surprised he has this throwback nickname.

Mike Trout seemed a bit surprised, too, when a Southern California newspaperman wrote about it this week.

Said Trout: “It’s funny you say that because I found out it was on a Wikipedia page. I think someone added it and just put the name out there and people ran with it.”

The nickname construction of “The” (telling us a sort of title is coming) followed by a geographical location and generally ending with a third word describing something about the player … was popular in the first 20 years of the last century, as this list of baseball nicknames would seem to indicate. (And just perusing the list is fun, if you are a baseball fan.)

The Georgia Peach. (Ty Cobb)

The Kentucky Colonel (Earle Coombs)

The Fordham Flash (Frankie Frisch)

The Hoosier Hammerer (Chuck Klein)

The Dominican Dandy (Juan Marichal)

The Duke of Tralee. (Roger Bresnahan)

The Curacao Kid (Andruw Jones; really?)

The Yankee Clipper (Joe DiMaggio)

The Flying Dutchman (Honus Wagner)

The Peerless Leader (Frank Chance)

The Iron Horse (Lou Gehrig)

The Meal Ticket (Carl Hubbell)

The Big Train (Walter Johnson)

The Ryan Express (Nolan Ryan)

The Little Colonel (Pee Wee Reese)

The Splendid Splinter (Ted Williams)

The Cuban Missile (Aroldis Chapman)

And then we get to the one that probably inspired this “after the fact” nickname:

“The Commerce Comet” — or Mickey Mantle. The player with whom Trout often is compared. Mantle came from Commerce, Oklahoma, and early in his career was very fast. Like a certain Meteor.

The thing about Trout is that this name seems to have been bestowed recently, and by someone who decided they liked it. Perhaps even someone from Milville, N.J.  A sportswriter, perhaps.

But whomever came up with the nickname, as little used as it is, it at least follows the formula of baseball usage 100 years ago.

The Somewhere Something almost never was bestowed ironically. It was given only to players who were particularly competent. It was meant to be a compliment.

Anyway, “The Millville Meteor” is not going to follow Trout around, but it follows baseball history, at least.