A's Brent Rooker Fitting in with American League All-Stars

Brent Rooker has spent his career trying to prove that he belongs in the big leagues. On Tuesday, he is set to take the field with the best of the best in the baseball world as the Oakland Athletics' lone representative. 

"It means a lot. It's really special. It makes all of the hard work and all of the grind and all of the years I spent wondering where I fit in, it makes it all worth it. The last two days have been unbelievable. One of the coolest experiences of definitely my baseball life and my life in general. I'm just enjoying every second of it."

He earned his way to Seattle by hitting .246 with a .341 on-base percentage, 16 home runs, and by lighting the league on fire for the first six weeks of the season as arguably MLB's best hitter in that span. 

Rooker came to the A's as a November waiver claim from the Kansas City Royals. That, after being traded by the Minnesota Twins in last year's deal between the San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins that had reliever Taylor Rogers and Chris Paddack as the two main pieces. He was then traded again on August 2, going for the Padres to the Royals, who would place him on waivers just over two months later. 

He got into just 16 games in the Majors last season and received 32 at-bats with the Padres and Royals. 

On the day that he found out he'd be an All Star, Rooker mentioned that there's a picture of himself hitting a home run off of Shohei Ohtani that he wanted to try and get signed at the All Star Game. Unfortunately, that wish didn't come to fruition. "I didn't even get the picture. It's a Getty Images thing and I don't have a subscription. I'll get it one of these days."

He may be in luck with an Ohtani autograph, as all of the player's jerseys were laid out in the middle of the AL clubhouse for each player to sign for their All Star teammates. He'll have the Ohtani auto, but it'll also be surrounded by some of the best players in baseball on a jersey donning his name.