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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CINCINNATI \u2014 Baseball is renowned for its obsession with its history, for better or worse, and the \u201Cbetter\u201D seemed to be on display before Tuesday\u2019s 86th All-Star Game, when the \u201CFranchise Four\u201D of the Reds and the \u201CGreatest Living Players\u201D of Major League Baseball walked gingerly onto the field at Great American Ball Park to the crowd's applause.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was fitting, then, that history unfolded in the game itself, and it was fitting that it came from a player in Mike Trout who, at 23, has already made plenty in his brief career and who seems destined to become one of those honored greats when his time comes. His resume is already starting to fill up, and he added to it again on Tuesday. He became&amp;nbsp;the first player to win back-to-back All-Star Game MVP awards in the 54 years that the honor has been given out after yet another impactful performance in his fourth midsummer classic.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trout\u2019s age is mentioned so often with his name because it seems impossible that he\u2019s able to do what he does night after night, despite almost always being one of the youngest players on the diamond. But this is the way it\u2019s been almost from the moment he entered the big leagues four seasons ago. His peers are far from awed, or reticent to lavish praise at this point. They know he\u2019s great, and they\u2019re matter-of-fact about it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt\u2019s kind of tough to put what he\u2019s able to do on the baseball field into words,\u201D said Tigers starter David Price, who benefited from Trout\u2019s strong performance by earning the win Tuesday night. \u201CI\u2019m happy he\u2019s kind of my generation of player so I don\u2019t have to watch it on highlights or hear about the great Mike Trout. I get to see it first-hand, so it\u2019s special.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trout\u2019s career so far has been defined by history; the statistics he\u2019s put up and the awards he\u2019s already won have put him in too many select groups in the annals of baseball to list.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trout didn\u2019t play out of this world in the AL\u2019s 6\u20133 win, but in a game where hitters rarely get more than three at-bats and pitchers are lucky to get two innings, he did plenty to stand above.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 &lt;strong&gt;ESTES: Frazier, new format are winners at Home Run Derby&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he did so immediately, opening the game with an opposite-field rocket off Zack Greinke that cleared the short rightfield fence at Great American Ballpark and gave the AL a 1\u20130 lead. That it came off Greinke was impressive enough\u2014the Dodgers righthander hasn\u2019t allowed a run in 35 2/3 consecutive regular-season innings\u2014but that it made Trout just the fourth player to lead off an All-Star Game with a home run (and the first since Bo Jackson) was perhaps more so. Even more history made.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the fifth inning, the proud Millville, N.J. native then wowed with his speed, scoring easily from second on Prince Fielder\u2019s single to leftfield off Clayton Kershaw, giving the AL a lead it wouldn\u2019t lose again. That run was only possible because Trout had earlier extended the inning by busting it down the line to beat out his potential double-play grounder.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lauding players\u2019 hustle can be a troublesome exercise, but the All-Star Game is hardly treated universally as a must-win, even though the winner gets home-field advantage in the World Series. Price, for example, said Monday that he treats the midsummer classic like a spring training game. As Trout said Tuesday, he plays hard every inning of every game, one of the reasons he\u2019s been able to convert his otherworldly talent into a burgeoning Hall-of-Fame career and been able to come up with nights like Tuesday on a regular basis. AL manager Ned Yost recognized as much, saying he had planned on leaving Trout in longer than any other player because of what he brings to the game.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHe\u2019s just special,\u201D Yost said. \u201CHe can do anything that anyone can do on a baseball field \u2026 And when you look at Mike, you don\u2019t look at a 23-year-old. You look at a guy that is one of the best baseball players on this planet.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trout wasn\u2019t the only one with a memorable performance on Tuesday. Rangers slugger Fielder turned back the clock, delivering the aforementioned go-ahead single and adding another insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Jacob deGrom and Aroldis Chapman of the NL All-Stars had the most impressive outings of the night\u2014each struck out the side in their lone innings of work, blowing away their hitters with unhittable fastballs. deGrom needed just 10 pitches. Lorenzo Cain of the Royals had two hits and an RBI, and Andrew McCutchen and Brian Dozier each added home runs of their own.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 &lt;strong&gt;STAFF: Picking best All-Star moments from Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Trout outshone them all, as he did in last year\u2019s game, and as he did over the course of last season, when he became the youngest player to be unanimously selected as MVP (Never mind that he was perhaps even more deserving in his first two years, when he finished second behind the Tigers\u2019 Miguel Cabrera). His talent and abilities don\u2019t need validation, but that\u2019s what Tuesday night provided, yet again.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite the procession of aging legends that preceded the first pitch, the story entering this year\u2019s All-Star Game was its infusion of youthful stars, which reflected the larger trend of this season. A new generation has burst into the major leagues, giving fans a preview of who will be dominating their airwaves and social media, not to mention actual stadiums, for the next decade-plus. Players such as Trout, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have already established themselves; Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson, Astros shortstop Carlos Correa and Cubs outfielder Kris Bryant have also arrived this season, and they will have a big say in the playoff race come the second half.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trout likely won\u2019t be the most effusive spokesman of this new group. As usual, he shared few words about his most recent landmark achievement, not saying much more than that it was an \u201Chonor.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He will, though, continue to be the next generation\u2019s dominant presence. Trout made history again on Tuesday and more is promised: more All-Star games, more MVPs, more incredible plays, hopefully more October opportunities. Let the breathtaking ride continue.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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