Trout named Heart and Hustle Award recipient

ANAHEIM -- Mike Trout's second straight All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award probably had more to do with the leadoff home run he hit off Zack Greinke in the first inning than the potential double play he beat out in the fifth, which helped lead to an American League two-run rally. But it's in the spirit of seemingly routine plays like those that Trout was named the Angels' 2015 winner of the Heart and Hustle Award.

"For me it's just a ground ball -- run it out hard. Even if it wasn't a double play I'm still gonna run hard," Trout said of the play after returning from All-Star Week in Cincinnati. "I never take a play off. It's little things."

The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association announced Tuesday that Trout would be the Angels' recipient of the award -- voted on by former players -- which "honors active players who demonstrate a passion for the game of baseball and best embody the values, spirit and tradition of the game."

Trout is an AL MVP frontrunner again this season, batting .307 with 28 home runs and 57 RBIs entering play Tuesday. But that's not why Trout's receiving the Angels' Heart and Hustle Award.

"For me, I've said this before, I go out and respect the game," Trout said. "I play as hard as I can -- it doesn't matter what the situation is in a game -- and try to be a role model for kids."

Eventually, toward the end of the season, fans, MLBPAA alumni and current players will vote to select the final winner from among the 30 teams' winners. Trout won the overall award in 2012.

The final winner will be announced on Nov. 10 at the 16th Annual Legends for Youth Dinner in New York City.