It was Aug. 3, the day of baseball’s trade deadline and an off-day on the East Coast before a series in Baltimore. About a dozen Los Angeles Angels were gathered near the first tee, ready to begin a long-awaited round of golf at the course that Tiger Woods designed for superstar Mike Trout.Little did the players realize, some of them would be former Angels very soon.“It seemed like every four or five holes someone was getting the call,” said Trout, who watched his team bonding event turn into one big breakup.Trout, 35, was eager to host his teammates near his hometown of Millville, N.J., at his private, invitation-only club, Trout National — The Reserve. But he’d planned the outing in the spring, without realizing the date’s significance on the baseball calendar. Nor could he know back then that the Angels, a team that rarely acts as sellers at the deadline, would tear it down.Suffice it to say, no team ever experienced a deadline day like this.Three players were traded while taking in the rolling hills of Trout National — reliever Brent Suter, outfielder Jo Adell and reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. A fourth, reliever Kirby Yates, learned he was dealt after the round was over while in a car heading back to Trout’s home.“It was pretty wild watching everybody go,” said Yates, a 12-year veteran. “None of us have ever seen that many guys get traded at once.“After somebody went, we just kept saying, ‘All right, who’s next?’”Do trade deadline deals lead to World Series rings?Joe CrisalliA fifth Angel traded that day, right-hander José Soriano, wasn’t part of the group, which the previous night boarded a bus upon landing in Baltimore for the two-hour drive to Trout’s home in New Jersey.Soriano, 27, doesn’t golf. He was asleep in his hotel room when he was awakened by a phone call the next morning informing him he was heading to the Toronto Blue Jays.Everyone else — the dozen or so players who stayed overnight at Trout’s home, plus coaches and staffers who arrived on a bus from Baltimore the following morning — was at Trout National.“I’m bummed I wasn’t invited,” Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak joked. “I was a little tied up that morning.”Mozeliak, preoccupied with trade negotiations, did not know nearly half his team was golfing. Trout came to realize, as he organized the outing, that it might be an unusual day. The group, he said, had an idea that trades were coming.
Mike Trout brought the Angels to his private golf club for team bonding. Then the trades began
Three Angels would be traded while on Trout's Tiger Woods-designed golf course, and a fourth would be dealt on the car ride home.













