Mike Scioscia won't stand for Nerf basketball hoops, loud music, fun in general

The hits just keep coming from Jeff Passan, who has a good piece up about the strict and measured control Mike Scioscia has over the Angels. According the the article, Mike Trout tried his best to alleviate some tension last year, when the team was still struggling early. Mike Scioscia put a stop to that nonsense, real quick like:

During their struggles early last year, before the Los Angeles Angels turned into a 98-win juggernaut, the best player in the world wanted something to loosen up the team a bit. So Mike Trout hung one of those Nerf mini-basketball hoops in the Angels’ clubhouse. One day, according to league sources, the hoop came down. Trout hung it back up. Down it went again.

Mike Scioscia, the sources said, did not like the idea of a foam ball being tossed around in his domain. He didn’t like loud music, either, so he turned the volume knob to a level he deemed appropriate. Never has there been any doubt: Scioscia is the king of Anaheim. Anybody who offends his sensibilities, even with something as benign as a plastic toy, risks his wrath.

You hear that, foam ball enthusiasts, loud music lovers and purveyors of fun, in general?! Mike Scioscia aint having none of that, so go to some other clubhouse. This is just further fallout from this morning's front office apocalypse that saw GM Jerry Dipoto resign amid re-heated tensions between him and Scioscia. Many looked to this as definitive proof(as if more was needed) that owner Arte Moreno thought more of Scioscia than anybody in his organization. A GM's job is to mitigate those rough waters, though, and get through to the coaching staff, but all reports relay they were at an impasse, hence Dipoto's taking his ball and going home.

Baseball is a game, and games are fun. Games are more fun win you're winning, but some times you need to liven up the spirits of your fellow teammates, as they're the only ones in the thick of it with you, game in and game out. To hear that Mike Trout, the Angels best player(of all time), and bonafide megastar, can't even attempt to put up a toy basketball hoop in the clubhouse suggests an atmosphere that will choke out any semblance of youthful attempts at getting turnt up, in a baseball-friendly, harmless sort of way. Then again, Scioscia reportedly had Albert Pujols backing up Scioscia's sentiment and stance toward the scouting info kerfuffle, which leads one to think that while Scioscia's methods may make little sense to us, there are at least SOME players who are buying into it.