PHILADELPHIA — In the summer of 2012, when Mike Trout became an All-Star for the first time, 10-year-old Jordan Walker was obsessed with riding the rollercoasters at Six Flags over Georgia in the suburbs of Atlanta. Sal Stewart, fresh off his ninth birthday, was “probably eating ice cream in the backyard of my house,” he said. In the thick of Australian winter, 10-year-old Travis Bazzana split his time between fullback and winger for the Gordon Stags rugby club.“I would have been mixing in Mike Trout highlights, too,” said Bazzana, the Cleveland Guardians second baseman.“We played him this year, and I thought it was the coolest thing,” said Stewart, the Cincinnati Reds third baseman.“When he was first coming up, me and my friends thought he was superhuman,” Guardians pitcher Parker Messick said. “He was just the coolest player in the world.”Walker, Stewart, Bazzana and Messick were among the first-time All-Stars on hand on Monday for the festivities at Citizens Bank Park. No player here had earned more All-Star appearances than Trout, the three-time MVP of the Los Angeles Angels, who was representing the American League for the 12th time. He sounded thrilled to play the Midsummer Classic only 45 minutes away from his hometown of Millville, N.J.“Never would have envisioned this,” Trout said. “But now I’m here. I’m trying to soak it all in.”A series of recent seasons wrecked by injuries has enhanced his perspective, Trout explained. The phenom once known as “The Kid” has become one of the game’s elder statesmen. Most of Trout’s peers accrued across 16 seasons in the majors were not here: Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman and George Springer. Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez. Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado. Even Aaron Judge, who replaced Trout as Captain America in the most recent edition of the World Baseball Classic, was absent as he nursed a ribcage injury.Yet there was Trout, who was greeted upon arrival in the visitors’ clubhouse on Monday by Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider, the American League skipper.“Hey,” Schneider said, “you’re leading off.”“I love it,” Trout replied.