On July 11, for the first time since 2001, Major League Baseball staged its annual all-star game at the home field of the Seattle Mariners — the same ballpark where Corbin Carroll ’19 attended games with his family growing up, dreaming of one day being good enough himself to play on that beautiful manicured field. As a standout player at Lakeside, he almost had that chance: his senior year, the Lions fell one game short of getting to play there in the state tournament.
He didn’t have to wait much longer. After a stunningly fast rise through the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor league system, Carroll became the first rookie in Major League history to hit 15 home runs and steal 25 bases before the mid-season break. The 22-year-old outfielder was rewarded by being selected as a starter in the 2023 All-Star game. Carroll went hitless in two at-bats — but just being on the same field and in the same locker room with the brightest stars in the sport, he said afterward, would be one of the most meaningful moments of his career, no matter what followed.
In addition to playing on baseball’s biggest stage in front of dozens of friends, family members, and former teammates and coaches, Carroll noted a couple of touches that made the homecoming especially memorable. One was play-by-play announcer John Davis announcing Carrol as the starting left fielder and adding, “Welcome home, Corbin.” The other was the large banner of Carroll in a Diamondbacks uniform that hung above the left field gate at T-Mobile Park — the same gate that Carroll had gone through so many times growing up, looking up at banners of Jamie Moyer and other Mariners stars.
Carroll said the two-and-a-half-day schedule of media appearances and other activities was tight — but he made time to get home for a night and also to get over to another field he spent time at growing up: West Queen Anne Playfield, where he played as a kid. For two hours, he signed autographs, posed for photos, and talked to current Little League players and their families. In an interview a couple of weeks after the local excitement died down, Carroll recalled the detour to Queen Anne to a Fox Sports reporter. “I just thought that if I was in Little League,” he said, “I would think that would be cool. So I wanted to go out there and do that.”
