MIKE TROUT is due back this month in the Angel lineup (Flickr).

If April is – as T.S. Eliot wrote – the cruelest month, which is the most promising?

This isn’t always the case, but I vote for August this year. T.S., supposedly, picked April because it was the time when some people measure their goals and desires against their reality and feel bad while the rest of the world is enjoying the beauty and optimism of spring.

However, if you are a local sports fan, you may find August to be a time of athletic delight. The Los Angeles Angels, barring a not-atypical collapse, are winning with style and are very much in the fight for an American League wild card berth.

Shohei Ohtani is writing his name in the record books with white-hot steel, and the team showed the good sense not only to not trade him, but also went wild in the trading market to bolster the injury-riddled Halo lineup.

August should also be the month that Mike Trout returns to the team with his heavy lumber and Golden  Glove, allowing the team to again put two sure-thing Hall of Famers on the field together.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are still atop the National League West and will almost certainly make the playoffs and can make a deep run if they can get their starting rotation figured out.

USC, coming off an 11-3 football season, is ranked eighth in the nation, largely on the shoulders of ace quarterback Caleb Williams (4,537 passing yards, 382 yards rushing and 52 total TDs).

The Trojans will host San Jose State on Saturday, Aug. 26 in the season opener.

By the way, UCLA , 9-4 last year, won’t start its 2023 season until Saturday, Sept. 2 hosting Coastal Carolina at the Rose Bowl.

Everything shapes up that this August will be an “august” (respected and impressive) and promising month for local sports fans.