Shohei Ohtani, Julio Rodriguez lead uniquely Seattle All-Star red carpet at Pike Place
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2023 All-Star Game in Seattle
Seattle’s T-Mobile Park is the focus of the baseball world this week as MLB’s top players gather for the 2023 All-Star Game. The TNT sports staff brings you all the action.
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In Seattle, of course, Julio Rodriguez is huge. In many ways, this Seattle All-Star week is his.
Yet in Major League Baseball, southern California, Japan and the baseball world, Shohei Otani is even bigger. The slugger-pitcher extraordinaire — specifically, where he will play next after his Anaheim Angels contract ends this year — has been the talk around Tuesday night’s 93rd MLB All-Star Game.
So it was that Ohtani, not Rodriguez, walked first down the red carpet Tuesday morning for a uniquely Seattle event at historic Pike Place Market that began All-Star game day.
“Shohei!” fans yelled as the superstar, asked the day before about his Seattle and his baseball future, emerged from a chute at the market’s north end.
Ohtani began the procession of American League and National League All-Stars down a cordon of screaming fans and clicking cameras along Pike Place south to Rachel the Piggy Bank. Rachel is the bronze porcine statue visitors place coins into for charity, in front of the fish vendors throw to sell at Pike Place Fish Market.
“There he is!” a woman yelled.
Ohtani, dressed relatively conservatively in a dapper gray suit, dress shirt and tie, then stopped a few steps away to talk to a mosh pit of Japanese reporters with cameras.
Most of the All-Stars had their wives, young children, mom and dads walking with them. The never-married, 29-year-old Ohtani strolled down the carpet solo. That is, except for the cameraman trailing him.
Camerapersons always trail him.
Ohtani has seemed to soak in his third consecutive All-Star Game this week, perhaps his last one representing the Angels. He talked glowingly Monday about Seattle, which is obviously more than just another MLB city for him.
He’s spent his off time here in recent years.
“I actually spent two offseasons in Seattle, a total of, like, four months, maybe,” he said, through his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “I’ve felt it’s a very nice city. Clean. I’ve really liked it.”
Tampa Bay Rays flashy slugger Randy Arozarena brought designer, embroidered cowboy boots to the home plate area as he competed in Monday’s Home Run Derby. Tuesday, he had the largest red-carpet entourage. About 10 family members walked down Pike Place with him smiling away.
Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim had the young nanny of he and his wife Kenzie’s 1-year-old and 2-year-old taking pictures of them along Pike Place. The nanny brought her dad from Texas to Seattle for the All-Star festivities and game. He seemed as excited to be their as she was.
Heim was one of five starters from the AL West-leading Rangers in the All-Star Game starting lineup.
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette strolled solo with his long, flowing, dark hair down his neck and over the top of his silky, sleek, buttoned-down shirt. He stood out in embracing the red-carpet vibe.
Baltimore Orioles outfielder Austin Hays walked out with his wife Samantha and their two young sons wearing teal-colored suit coats to match Dad’s. Steps into their stroll, Hays stopped, put down his son he’d been holding and opened his coat to reveal the blue-and-green Seattle All-Star Game logo sewn into the inside lining.
Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros, the Mariners’ archrival in the AL West and slugger ended Seattle’s first postseason in 21 years with huge hits last fall, got booed from the Seattleites when he was introduced and began walking down the market’s street.
Luis Castillo, who with fellow pitcher George Kirby and Rodriguez are the Mariners’ three All-Stars this week, walked down the carpet in a black suit with his wife Elanyi in a matching pants suit and their daughters Brittany and Brianny in yellow-and-black dresses.
The girls matched the sunflowers the Chicago Cubs’ mascot Clark passed out to fans from the carpet before the event began.
The home crowd cheered.
Then, it roared. Rodriguez walked onto the red carpet with his family.
His smile was as bright as the Tuesday morning’s blue-sky sun. He answered the dozens of “Julio!” calls with fist bumps and hand shakes. Fans standing under the iconic, red, neon PUBLIC MARKET sign at Pine Street and Pike Place raised their cell phones to record Rodriguez’s rousing entrance.
It’s a grand baseball stage the 22-year-old is getting comfortable owning. Monday night, he was fashionably late, the last star onto another red carpet for T-Mobile’s Derby After Dark party at the Showbox SoDo concert venue. Nelly began his performance after Rodriguez arrived, fresh off his record-setting 41 home runs in one round of the Home Run Derby up the street at T-Mobile Park, site of the All-Star Game Rodriguez played in.
That’s two All-Star Games in two major-league seasons — plus a mammoth contract that could be worth up to $470 million from the Mariners — all in the last 12 months.
“It’s definitely unbelievable,” the 22-year-old from Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic, told The News Tribune at the Showbox late Monday night.
“It’s definitely been a lot. It’s definitely been a lot.
“A lot of good things have been coming out way. A lot of good parties here. A lot of good things that we’ve been doing for people.
“I feel really lucky, and blessed, that I get the opportunities that I get.”
This story was originally published July 11, 2023 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Shohei Ohtani, Julio Rodriguez lead uniquely Seattle All-Star red carpet at Pike Place."
