Every ballplayer, Tony Barnette figures, has a story. He shares this opinion in front of the home dugout, over the din of the crowd, at Tokyo Dome prior to Game 1 of the NPB All-Star Series this past weekend.
Barnette has already got a pretty good story to tell. The latest chapter saw him recognized as one of the top players in the Central League and honored as an All-Star.
Through the years he's gone from Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn, Washington, where he played baseball and rooted for the Seattle SuperSonics, to taking selfies with fans in Tokyo and Hiroshima during the All-Star Series.