Less than three hours before this year’s All-Star Game, more than a dozen reporters are huddled around Yankees ace Gerrit Cole at his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. Cole is in his typical form on days when he’s not pitching, relaxed and at ease talking baseball with the scribes.
No more than six feet away sits Cole’s catcher, Jose Trevino, who made his first All-Star team this season. Back in early April when the Rangers traded him to New York, nobody—not even Trevino—thought he would be here now, three-and-a-half months later. He is soaking it all in and having some fun with the game’s best players. At least for this season, he’s one of them.
A few lockers down from Trevino stands Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter and confidant, Ippei Mizuhara. Ohtani has his trademark grin stretched across his face, laughing with Mizuhara and any of the other players who say hello. He’s taking his sweet time putting on his uniform; he’s in no rush to start stretching.
