Pitching or not, Miley excited for All-Star Game

PHOENIX -- In Kansas City this week for the All-Star Game, Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley knows he's in pretty select company.

There's Matt Cain, who threw a perfect game in June. Reigning NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw will be there, too. Same with Cole Hamels and Jonathan Papelbon.

Given such a stacked NL pitching staff and the fact that Miley is a rookie -- a relatively unknown one, at that -- he knows there's a chance he might not pitch in Tuesday's game. Regardless, Miley is thrilled just to have the opportunity to soak in the All-Star experience.

"I'm just going to go out there and have a good time," Miley said. "I'm not really expecting anything. If I pitch, I pitch. If not, it's not a big deal. It's a couple extra days of rest. So it's a positive either way."

Of the last four rookie pitchers to make the National League All-Star team, only one actually took the mound in the game: Braves reliever Craig Kimbrel. He went as a rookie in 2011 and threw 1/3 of an inning.

A few D-backs teammates with All-Star appearances of their own have offered Miley some advice. The common message: Enjoy it, because you don't know if you will ever get to again.

"I'm going to go in open-minded and, like they said, just take in the experience," Miley said. "It's going to be an honor to be on the field with those guys, and I'm just going to go enjoy it.

"It's going to be great to see all those guys. You grew up watching them and even in the last three or four years trying to make it to the big leagues you watch those guys. It's going to be a great experience to sit in the same clubhouse with them."

Miley also said he's looking forward to playing for managerial legend Tony La Russa, whom he has never met. La Russa is taking a brief hiatus from retirement to coach the All-Star team after leading the Cardinals to the World Series title last year.

D-backs manager Kirk Gibson believes the experience will be something very different for Miley, a keep-it-simple kind of guy who shies away from individual praise. Miley, Gibson said, probably thought early in the season he'd be spending the break at home, hunting in southeastern Louisiana.

"It's going to be quite a different setting for him, probably not a natural environment for him as well," Gibson said. "He'd be more comfortable in a tree, like me, with his camo on."

The experience will be new for Miley, but he won't be there alone. He will be the only D-backs representative, but he will have a large contingent on hand for his first All-Star Game, including his parents, wife, father-in-law, grandfather, friends from college and even his high school coach.

"My dad and my mom, they're fired up," Miley said. "They're probably more excited than I am."

In truth, Miley doesn't exude pure excitement about his trip to Kansas City. Part of that might be nerves -- though he says he's not nervous -- or uncertainty about what the whole experience will be like. But it also seems Miley's competitiveness is suppressing some of the excitement you would expect from a rookie headed to the All-Star Game.

Miley says he appreciates the honor and expects a great experience, but he's clearly more interested in what the D-backs are doing than he is in an exhibition between the leagues.

"It's great in some sense, but it's really not the reason I play – to go to an All-Star Game," Miley said. "It's kind of an individual thing so I want to just go enjoy it and when it's over get back to business."

Miley said that even with all the events that come with the All-Star Game and the people he will be meeting, he will inevitably have the D-backs and what they are trying to accomplish on his mind.

"I think about it every day," Miley said. "Our goal, my goal this year, is for the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the World Series. That runs through your mind all the time."

So might the All-Star Game be part of that goal if Miley can help the NL secure home-field advantage?

"Heck yeah," Miley said. "Why not?"