Born to catch: Goodman's All-Star story begins at birth

DENVER -- Growing up in Arlington, Tenn., Hunter Goodman would sometimes look at a picture of his mother, Stephanie "Ziggy" Goodman, catching for the softball team at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. He would watch his father, Robert Goodman, play catcher in adult fast-pitch softball.

Goodman would prove that he was born to catch.

In his first season as the Rockies' regular catcher -- after moving about the diamond the previous two years -- Goodman will represent the club in Tuesday night's All-Star Game.

When Goodman started playing, his parents were happy he caught, because it was safer for their easily distracted son.

“To this day, I can remember him being 7 years old, playing coach-pitch,” Robert Goodman said. “He's playing third base, which is a pretty hot corner at that age, because everybody just pulls the ball.

“And he's chewing on the leather on the side of his glove, looking at the other ball field. We were like, ‘Hey, get back in the game, man, or you're gonna get drilled.’”

Goodman wanted to be a ballplayer from the time he could walk and talk. But he established the position before he could do either all that well.

"From when he was just little, he was always squatting down,” Ziggy Goodman said. “And we tried and tried to talk him out of it.

“But that's what he wanted to do.”

Goodman wanted to catch so much that even when he toddled around wearing the glove of his maternal grandfather -- a left-hander -- he would put on a mask and helmet. He needed the excitement.

“You don't go a single pitch without having to be locked in,” Goodman said. “You could go play other positions and not get a ball all day.”

Goodman, 25, is an All-Star mainly because of what he does when he puts down the gear and picks up the bat. But somehow the actions are connected, given his .934 OPS with 15 home runs and 39 RBIs while catching, as opposed to a .670 OPS, two homers and 13 RBIs as a designated hitter.

Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer has to balance Goodman's health with how he lights up when written on the lineup card as a catcher. Goodman has caught 55 games this year, after not catching in more than 35 in any Minor League season since he was selected out of the University of Memphis in the fourth round of the 2021 Draft.

Why was Goodman's route to the catcher's box so circuitous?

It was his bat. The Rockies correctly projected elite power. In 2022, his first full pro season, Goodman socked a combined 36 home runs at Single-A Fresno, High-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford, and knocked 34 in ‘23 -- the year he made his Major League debut by going 2-for-4 at Baltimore on Aug. 27. He played first base and in right field the rest of the year.

Goodman would always be brought to Spring Training with pitchers and catchers, simply because they needed folks to catch all the bullpen sessions. Last spring, however, then-manager Bud Black and then-bench coach Mike Redmon took note of how well Goodman worked with pitchers and took a look at him behind the plate.

His early callups were in a utility role, but the final time he was sent down, he began blasting his way back to the Majors while catching. Goodman finished last season sharing time with veteran Jacob Stallings and prospect Drew Romo. This year, Goodman quickly moved ahead of Stallings, who was released and is now with the Orioles.

The preparation came early.

His mother, a finalist for the Memphis area prep softball player of the year award from The Commercial Appeal newspaper in 1991, at first worked one-on-one with Goodman when dad's work schedule didn't allow. She saw a special work ethic.

“When he was almost 3, he would point at the TV, and he would tell me he was gonna play on TV,” Ziggy Goodman said. "I told him, ‘Maybe, if you work hard.'

“Then he did something I did a lot, too. He didn't want to leave when practice was over. He wanted to hit another bucket of balls. His work ethic was a little different from other 8, 9, 10-year-olds.

“In high school, he would call his dad and say practice would be over at whatever time and, ‘Would you come throw me a bucket of balls?'"

Robert Goodman and a couple of his old high school teammates, Nick Huber and Justin Crenshaw, eventually coached his son's youth teams.

Dad and his friends taught the old-school catching techniques. Over the last year, Goodman has evolved into the modern one-knee down style. But there is no father-son/coach-player generation gap.

“Hey, man, I'm always one of those, ‘Whatever works’ guys,” he said. “New, old, whichever way works.”

How about anything behind home plate?

Now Goodman can tell the truth about how he felt when he did not catch.

“I'm not the biggest fan of the outfield -- I don't have a ton of experience,” he said. “First base, I feel pretty comfortable.

“But behind the plate, that's where it's at.”