Don Wakamatsu emerges from the visiting dugout at Safeco Field, carrying a catcher’s mitt. He shakes a few hands with people that approach him, but otherwise he keeps to himself and the players on the Kansas City Royals, preparing for the team’s pregame workout.
He keeps an impossibly low profile when he returns to Seattlr, eschewing media requests and on-camera interviews in favor of quiet, off-the-record chats to catch up on life and baseball.
Perhaps it’s the sting of returning to a place where he reached the apex of his post-playing career as manager of the Mariners and having his tenure end abruptly in the middle of his second season.