Joseph P. Smith

@jpsmith_dj

MILLVILLE - Mike Trout first made it to the Big Show. Now, he's made it to the big screen.

And, yeah, it's another home run for the Los Angeles Angels outfielder who one teammate calls "America's face."

The Levoy Theatre, another marquee institution here, opened for a free doubleheader showing Thursday night of the new documentary “Mike Trout: Millville to MVP.”

The audience, including the Millville High School baseball team, went home feeling great about one of their own, and their city.

“The film was unbelievable,” said attorney Brendan Kavanagh after the 45-minute film ended. “What a tribute to Millville. What a tribute to Mike’s family. And I’ll tell you. It was amazing to watch all the young people in this theater. All the baseball players from Millville High School and even younger than that. I watched a lot of these kids grow up and took a lot of them to Cooperstown about five years ago. And it’s great to see them here emulating Mike. And hopefully he’s going to have another great, amazing, MVP season.”

The documentary was filled with shots of Millville and its environs: Jim’s Lunch, which feeds Trout’s legendary appetite for cheeseburgers with special sauce; Razor’s Edge, a barbershop with a seat always open for him; and, of course, Millville Senior High School and its baseball team.

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The MLB Network documentary probably is its first to focus on an individual player, according to Producer James Potocki.

“Mike Trout’s not only the best player in the game but he’s a generational talent,” Potocki said. “So we always wanted to do a show on Mike. We wanted to do it here. He was available in the off-season. … We knew he was local. Our office is in Secaucus. So we set up something here.

“And then, once we interviewed him, from the time he sat down to the time he left, we knew the story had to be about here and about his relationship with Millville and this area,” Potocki said.

Potocki said the documentary has been showed only on the West Coast, where it screened for Angels fans.

“So, that was the first official screening,” he laughed. “So, this is the East Coast premiere.”

A lot of the filming and interviewing was done inside Jim’s Lunch, and the references to the family-owned restaurant drew knowing laughs from the audience.

The restaurant's daughter-and-mother owners, Nikki and Rochelle Maul, were at the 7 p.m. showing and having a good time.

Nikki Maul said, yes, Trout’s powerful physique owes a lot to Jim’s burgers. He doesn’t eat as many now as the six-per-seating mentioned in the documentary, she said.

“He’s down to two doubles with sauce,” she said.

The attention to Trout also bathed the Levoy in a warming light.

“What was the best part I liked?” Levoy Chairman Phil Van Emden said while manning a concession stand. “Besides seeing the picture of the Levoy marquee? I enjoyed seeing the progression that Mike went though. He works harder and harder. What he accomplished, all he ever does he wants to keep accomplishing. That’s really a work ethic. I appreciate that.”

Millville baseball Coach Roy Hallenbeck and two assistant coaches, Ken Williams and Mike Edwards, were there with what looked like every baseball player in the city.

“Oh, my God,” Hallenbeck said. “It was unbelievable. Really emotional. I didn’t expect it to be that emotional. And it was amazing to relive some of those moments again.”

Hallenbeck was struck by the importance Trout and other players place on their high school days, even years later.

“And we have a lot of kids who come back and spent time with us and come to home games and keep in touch,” he said. “But for him to do it, as busy as he is and as big as he is, it just means a lot to us that it still means a lot to him.”

“Pretty neat stuff,” Edwards said. “It’s a little surreal.”

“It’s nice tribute to everything he’s accomplished and it’s great for the town,” Williams said.

The coaches said Trout is held up as an example of what player “intangibles” are important, such as work ethic.

Millville baseball player Ryan McIsaac said he felt honored.

“I mean, he came to school,” McIsaac said. “He’s a celebrity to us. But I mean, he gives back to us and everything, which is great.”

“It gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that where he came from is the same place where we came from,” teammate Tyler Ramos said.

“I thought it was a great documentary," said Dalton Hughes, a catcher for Millville.

One scene in the film touches on Trout's surprise gift to the team: boxes and boxes of cleats and turf shoes. Hughes wore his to the premiere.

Teammate Tristan Harris said the documentary was true to who Trout is. “He’s a Millville guy and we love that about him,” he said.

Hunter Sibley and another player went from “amazing” to "awesome” to “great” to describe the documentary.

“It was just a great experience to watch it and know, like, this is my town,” Sibley said. “This is where we grew up. All of us here.”

Millville is an old city and still, despite about 28,000 residents, a small town where almost everyone crosses paths and many families are tied together.

Steve Neder, the city’s retired judge, called the documentary terrific.

“We know the Trout family,” Neder said. “I know his grandfather. My son Jeff played for Mike’s father, Jeff. I almost went into business with Jeff at one time with a batting cage. So, we know the Trouts very well."

He added: “But it’s a testimony to Millville, too. A testament to Millville.”

The documentary will air on MLB Network on Sunday, April 9, at 8 p.m. and is expected to be replayed at different times throughout the season.

Joseph P. Smith; (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com