Angels news: Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, diapers & masks

Angels superstar center fielder Mike Trout was a guest on the debut episode of “Off the Mound with Ryan Dempster” Friday on the Marquee Sports Network, the new television home of the Cubs, and was given a unique tutorial on how to put a diaper on a baby.

“I think any advice or anything you can give me to help me out, I need it,” Trout told Dempster.

Trout and his wife Jessica are expecting a baby boy this summer, and Dempster used a plastic doll to show Trout how to properly diaper an infant. Trout didn’t have a baby doll, but rather a stuffed rabbit doll to practice on. The best part of the video was probably when Trout’s wife could be heard laughing as she handed him the container with all the materials, including the rabbit.

After brief instruction, Trout was a quick learner, getting the diaper on the rabbit doll before Dempster finished his explanation. Trout said it was the first diaper he has ever put on.

Though Trout’s naiveté showed when, after getting the diaper on, he noted, “She left me these wipes. I forgot to wipe the bunny, but I think it will be fine.”

Oops.

Links

• Shohei Ohtani donated to the Japan Mask Project, which assists medical workers. “I’m sure it’s hard for everyone, but many people including the healthcare workers, are working hard right now to solve this,” Ohtani said in a statement released by the Angels. “I’m hoping that this will help them. I think we can support each other through this, with kindness, appreciation and the thought to help one another.”
• David Schoenfield at ESPN wondered what a shortened season might look like for playoff chances by using various stints of teams in recent years, among them the 2017 and 2018 Angels, to name a few.
• Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan delayed its season opener, which will not take place in May, per the Associated Press. The season was originally scheduled to begin on April 10, but has been delayed multiple times by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus looked back at the 1950 baseball season, when a different virus, Polio, ran rampant.