All-Star notebook: Dusty Baker loves Seattle; Gerrit Cole not Luis Castillo AL starter

Dusty Baker has seen some places and things in his baseball career.

The 74-year-old manager of the Houston Astros — and because they won the most recent World Series, the manager of the American League in MLB’s 93rd All-Star Game at T-Mobile Park Tuesday — debuted as a player with the Atlanta Braves in 1968. On April 8, 1974, Baker was the Braves’ starting center fielder, batting fifth just behind Hank Aaron, the night Aaron hit his historic 715th home run in Fulton County Stadium to become the all-time home run king.

Baker was Steve Garvey’s, Ron Cey’s and Davey Lopes’ teammate on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series teams of the late 1970s, playing in the baseball palace of Dodger Stadium. He’s managed the San Francisco Giants at their wondrous park next to the Bay plus the Astros into the World Series.

Yet the baseball lifer holds one city he never played or managed in dearly.

“I’m glad to be back here,” Baker said Monday of Seattle. “This is one of my favorite towns of all time.”

A few minutes later during his press conference to introduce the American League’s starting lineup for Tuesday’s midsummer classic, Baker said it again.

“This is a great town. One of the great towns in America,” Baker said.

“One of the towns I wanted to manage in.”

At 74, this is likely to be the last baseball stop for Baker, a four-sport star — baseball, basketball, football and track — for Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, outside Sacramento. He and his wife Melissa still call that area home.

So, no, he isn’t trying to take the job of Scott Servais, the Mariners’ manager and Houston’s rival in the AL West.

He didn’t even want to sit in Servais’ office at T-Mobile Park Monday when the AL team moved into the Mariners’ clubhouse for the next two days.

“I actually told him I didn’t want his office: ‘You can put me somewhere in the back,’” Baker said.

“He insisted I take it.”

Baker asked Servais to be one of his coaches for the AL team in the All-Star Game. Servais accepted and was in his home white M’s uniform for Monday’s workout day before the evening’s Home Run Derby.

All-Star Game lineups

Baker decided not to have Mariners ace Luis Castillo start the All-Star Game in his home park. He chose Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees as the AL’s starting pitcher.

Cole is 9-2 with a 2.85 ERA (the same as Castillo’s ERA) for the Yankees. Cole has 123 strikeouts and 34 walks. New York is 14-5 in his starts this season. This is his sixth All-Star Game but first time as the starting pitcher.

Cole last pitched on Saturday. He threw 103 pitches over 7-1/3 innings with five hits and three earned runs allowed in a win over the Chicago Cubs.

Baker asked Cole if he was good with starting Tuesday. He was way more than good with that.

“It’s just something I’ve wanted to do,” the 32-year-old former ace of Pirates and Astros said.

He said one of his lasting baseball memories as a kid growing up in southern California was watching Pedro Martinez pitch in his eight All-Star Games from 1996 through 2006.

“I’ve always been like, ‘Man, I hope I can do that someday.’”

Castillo is 6-6 with a better walks-per-innings-pitched number than Cole, 1.043 to 1.101. He hasn’t pitched since Friday, 89 pitches over seven innings with no earned runs allowed in Seattle’s 10-1 win at Houston. This is his third All-Star Game.

The AL’s lineup: Texas’ Marcus Semien at second base; Shohei Ohtani from Anaheim as the designated hitter; Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena in left field; Texas’ Corey Seager at shortstop; Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz at first base; Adolis Garcia of Texas in right field; Baltimore’s Austin Hays in center field; Josh Jung from Texas at third base and Texas catcher Jonah Heim batting ninth.

National League manager Rob Thomson from the Philadelphia Phillies named Arizona right-hander Zac Gallen the NL’s starting pitcher in the 27-year-old’s first All-Star Game.

“It’s been a whirlwind. It’s been crazy,” Gallen said. “This is something I’ve dreamed of as a kid.”

Thomson’s NL lineup: Atlanta right field Ronald Acuna Jr. leading off; then Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman Freddie Freeman; Dodgers center fielder Mookie Betts; L.A.’s J.D. Martinez as the designated hitter; Nolan Arenado from St. Louis at third base; .383-hitting Luis Arraez from Miami at second base; Atlanta catcher Sean Murphy; Arizona’s Corbin Carroll from Lakeside High School in Seattle in left field; and Orlando Arcia from Atlanta at shortstop.

The last time starting pitchers from the Yankees and Diamondbacks started against each other in an All-Star Game was the last time it was in Seattle: 2001, when Roger Clemens of the AL began against former Mariner Randy Johnson for the NL.

Sharp-dressed men

Baker, in his second consecutive summer as the AL’s All-Star manager by virtue of managing in the previous season’s World Series, bought blue sport coats for each of the American League’s All-Stars.

Thomson was surprised to learn that — during the press conference.

Thomson shared the thoughts of All-Star managers.

“All we want is to get these guys in the game, out of the game and back to their teams healthy,” the Phillies’ manager said, “while they have fun.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 5:03 PM with the headline "All-Star notebook: Dusty Baker loves Seattle; Gerrit Cole not Luis Castillo AL starter."

Gregg Bell

The News Tribune

Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10. Support my work with a digital subscription