Former MSU player Rooker steps on field with All-stars
SEATTLE — Former Mississippi State baseball player Brent Rooker believed he was good enough to perform at the Major League Baseball level.
Becoming an All-star was beyond what he thought was possible.
Rooker of the Oakland Athletics will join the other American League All-stars in Seattle tonight when the All-star Game is played.
"It's overwhelming in a way,” Rooker said. “Thinking back to spring training conversations and kind of where my process was, I had a long belief that I was good enough to be a big leaguer, to be a consistent big leaguer and produce here. To be completely transparent, I never allowed myself to think I could make an All-star team so this is even shocking for me. It's more than I expected even of myself, which is kind of a cool feeling to go out and achieve something I couldn't even conceive possible until right now. It's a pretty cool feeling for sure."
Booker leads the Athletics with a .246 batting average, 16 home runs and 44 runs batted in. He has 12 doubles and one triple.
The New York Yankees' Gerrit Cole will start tonight's game for the American League and Arizona's Zac Gallen will open on the mound for the NL.
AL manager Dusty Baker of Houston and NL manager Rob Thomson of Philadelphia announced their starting lineups on Monday before the annual Home Run Derby.
Cole will start for the first time in his sixth All-star nod. He is 9-2 with a 2.85 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 117 innings. The 32-year-old right-hander joins Lefty Gomez (five times), Red Ruffing (twice), Hank Borowy, Spud Chandler, Roger Clemens, Whitey Ford, Jimmy Key, Vic Raschi, Met Stottlemyre, Bob Turley and David Wells as Yankees All-star starters.
“It's always something I wanted to do,” Cole said.
Gallen, a 27-year-old right-hander, is 11-3 with a 3.04 ERA, tied for the major league lead in wins. The first-time All-star has 125 strikeouts in 118 1/3 innings and becomes the third Diamondbacks pitcher to start an Allstar Game after Randy Johnson in 2000 and '01 and Curt Schilling in 2002.
Gallen said he learned of the starting assignment last Wednesday and had been telling “white lies” since then, including to his family.
“It's been a whirlwind really,” Gallen said. “This is something I dreamed of as a kid, so for it to come to fruition is everything and more.”
The Yankees and Diamondbacks have Allstar starting pitchers for the time since Clemens and Johnson in the 2001 game at Seattle.
Baker said Sunday that Cole wouldn't pitch in the All-star Game because he would be going on two days' rest after throwing 103 pitches in a 9-2 win over the Chicago Cubs in New York on Saturday.
“Hey, if a man like Gerrit Cole wants to pitch, I'll let him pitch,” Baker said Monday.
“I feel like I'm physically able to do it,” Cole added.