It’s Tuesday morning, five days before Hunter Goodman is officially named to the National League All-Star Team. Goodman and his wife, Sydney, sip coffee in their downtown Denver apartment, about three-quarters of a mile from Coors Field.
They dated for nine years, ever since they were high school sweethearts growing up outside of Memphis. They’ve been married for almost two years, so they’ve learned to read each other’s moods.
They know the toil and rhythms of a long season. They usually don’t talk baseball, especially not in the morning.
“That is our time together, it’s pretty rare that we talk about the game,” says Sydney, who’s been to about 90% of the games this season, usually adorned in her Rockies gear. “We talk about what’s going on in our Netflix shows. We talk about our families.”
Goodman adds, “I don’t want to be hanging out with Sydney and be thinking about baseball. I think about that all of the time, but not when I’m with her.”
But this day is a bit different.
Hunter is in the midst of a breakout season. The Rockies catcher is riding a seven-game hitting streak in which he’s slashed .321/.387/.679, and he’s about to return to the lineup after missing four straight games with a tight left hamstring. He says he’s pumped to get back behind the plate and not worried about the injury. Sydney is a bit more concerned.
“I’m really nervous,” she says. “We were reading on Twitter the night before, everybody saying that Hunter might go on the injured list. Twitter said, ‘IL, IL, IL.’
“Little did they know that he was going to play that day, but it was still nerve-wracking because you don’t want him to go out there and push it too hard.”
The life of a big league catcher is never easy, of course. In an effort to provide a glimpse of the rigors that come with donning the tools of ignorance, The Denver Post chronicled a day in the life of the Goodmans — from those sips of coffee in their LoDo apartment all the way to the cold tub in the bowels of Coors Field. Here’s their story.
The pregame routine
Just before 1 p.m., Goodman makes the short trek to Coors. It’s the 96th day of the Rockies’ season and their 85th game. The club carries the baggage of an awful 19-65 record into the night’s series-opener against the Astros.
The catcher’s pregame routine is extensive, a mix of preparation and relaxation:
• Lunch, a combination of protein and carbs (steak and pasta on this day). He often eats with left fielder Jordan Beck, one of his best friends on the team.
• Treatment in the training room for his sore hamstring. Before some games, he’ll soak in the hot tub to ease his aches and pains, but treatment takes precedence today.
• A short session in the batting cage. “Just to get in game mode and get my body loose,” he says.
• A half-hour session in the video room where Goodman studies videos of the Astros pitchers, as well as some of the Astros hitters. As a catcher, he has to pull double duty.
“I’m looking for tendencies,” he says. “We have (written) scouting reports, but it helps to get a look at the pitchers and hitters. You can sometimes pick up on things.”
About 3:45 p.m., Hunter goes into the weight room to stretch before heading out to the field for batting practice. On days when he’s catching, he hits with the first group.
After BP, Goodman meets in an office inside the Rockies’ clubhouse with rookie starting pitcher Chase Dollander to dissect the Astros’ lineup. Pitching coach Darryl Scott and bullpen coach Dustin Garneau also attend the strategy session. Houston is a hot team, having just posted an MLB-best 19-7 record in June. The Astros are also patient at the plate.
Dollander has never faced the Astros, so he’s getting a tutorial. He knows that veteran Jose Altuve is dangerous and has hit well at Coors Field (.333 career average). Still, the player who consistently hurts Colorado is Mauricio Dubon, who’s hit .333 (13 for 39) with three doubles, a homer and eight RBIs in 14 games at Coors.
It’s a big test for Dollander, who’s pitched well on the road but has been beaten up at Coors, posting an 8.54 ERA in his first six outings, the highest home ERA among any major league pitcher with at least six starts.
About a half-hour before the 6:40 p.m. first pitch, Dollander and Goodman throw an abbreviated bullpen.
“We’re just trying to get a feel for where I’m at, what I’m feeling that day, what’s working,” Dollander says. “I feel good, strong. I’m ready.”
Settling in
The first-pitch temperature is 85 degrees when Goodman squats behind the plate, adorned in his catching armor. The helmet, catcher’s mask, chest protector and shin guards add almost 10 pounds to Goodman’s 6-foot, 210-pound frame. The sweat begins to roll immediately.
Catching is gritty, dirty work, but Goodman loves it.
“There are definitely some days that are better than others,” he says. “For the most part, I feel like I have handled it pretty well. I do a lot of things in the weight room, stretching, lifting, going to the training room to make sure my body is fresh and feeling good.
“So far, it’s been better than I expected, especially being my first full season of big-league catching. I came into the year kind of thinking, ‘This is going to be a grind.’ But being ready for it has helped me a lot.”
Dollander and Goodman have a good top of the first inning. Dollander sets the Astros down in order, striking out Isaac Paredes with a nasty curveball, getting Jake Meyers to ground out to short, and coaxing Altuve to fly out to right field. Dollander throws 17 pitches.
“After the first inning, we came back into the dugout and I said, ‘Let’s stay right here. I like where I’m at,” Dollander recalls. “I was painting the zone. We said, ‘Let’s start flipping some changeups and sliders.’ ”
In the bottom of the frame, Goodman, hitting second, ambushes rookie right-hander Colton Gordon’s first-pitch, 91.7 mph fastball, sending it 431 feet and over the center-field wall as the water fountains fire up in celebration. The 431-footer is the longest homer of his career.
“I hadn’t played in four days, it was my first at-bat, so I was excited just to be back in the lineup,” he says. “We knew that (Gordon) likes to attack hitters early, so I was just going up there looking for a first-pitch fastball.
“But to be honest, I was really up there just trying to see where I was, timing-wise, because I hadn’t been there in for a few days. I was like, ‘All right, let’s just try to be on time for a first-pitch fastball.’
“I was able to put a good swing on it. It felt good, it felt great. It’s always nice to have an immediate impact.”
Family affair
Sydney usually sits in the Rockies’ family section near the dugout, but because her husband’s family is in town for the game and takes up those seats, she and some other players’ wives have a suite for the night.
Sydney goes a little bit crazy when Goodman hits the homer, but also calls it “surreal.”
“Hunter’s never really had to sit like this before and take days off,” she says. “I’m also thinking, ‘Well, that’s a way for him to not have to run.’ ”
The Astros tie the game, 1-1, in the second on Christian Walker’s single, but both Dollander and Goodman are feeling good about Dollander’s performance. That all changes in the third when the Astros score five runs and Dollander’s pickoff attempt to first base results in an error. It’s an ugly half inning.
Scott strolls from the dugout to the mound, where he and Goodman confer with Dollander.
“It usually starts by trying to settle the pitcher down,” Goodman says. “In Denver, you can lose your breath really quick, so in those mound meetings, you want to make sure and give the pitcher a few moments to relax and catch his breath.
“Toward the end of the meeting, we talk about the hitter coming up, how we’ll attack him, and what we will throw that first pitch.”
However, on this day, the consultation is of no help. The killer blow is a grand slam into the right field seats by Victor Caratini. Goodman calls for a 1-2 curveball, but Dollander hangs the pitch and Caratini launches the ball 413 feet at 102.6 mph.
“It was the right pitch, but I completely missed my spot,” Dollander says. “It was a terrible pitch. If I had buried it, it would have been a swing-and-miss punchout, and I would have been out of the inning.”
Dollander’s day is done after a mere 2 2/3 innings, the shortest start of his career.
On the basepaths
The bottom of the third tests Goodman’s hamstring. He leads off with a four-pitch walk and advances to third on Beck’s single to right field.
“I was holding my breath,” Sydney says. “But I think he knows he can only go 65-70%.”
Goodman knows he doesn’t need to push it.
“Honestly, I was pretty timid going first to third there, but it was a single through the hole, and their right fielder (Cam Smith) wasn’t charging in very aggressively, so I figured I had first-to-third pretty easily,” says Goodman, who scores on Thairo Estrada’s sacrifice fly.
Colorado chips away at the Astros’ lead but trails 6-4 entering the bottom of the ninth. With one out and no one on base, Goodman comes in to face Houston lefty Josh Hader, one of the game’s best closers. Josh Hader is a perfect 23 for 23 and has the most saves without a blown save in the majors. Hader’s perfect streak is the longest in club history to open a season.
But Goodman attacks Hader’s first-pitch, 95.3 mph sinker, sending it 443 feet to left-center, surpassing his first-inning blast as the longest homer of his career.
“In situations like that, you have to try your best to make it like it’s any other at-bat,” Goodman says. “In those situations, when you’re trying to rally, you just want to take a good at-bat, get on base and keep it going.
“But it’s hard sometimes. You’re going to put pressure on yourself. This game sets you up for that. You just have to try your best to counter that. Try to relax and treat it as another at-bat.”
‘Could I have called a better game?’
Despite Goodman’s two-homer game, the Rockies lose, 6-5, falling to 19-66.
“It’s been kind of frustrating sometimes, for sure, but you look at the past month and the games we’ve been a part of and the competition we’ve played,” Goodman tells the media after the game. “That Houston team is leading the American League, or right up there at the top. Playing against them and playing a good ballgame against them is a positive.”
When the Rockies win, Goodman usually enjoys a beer or two, but on this night, he sits and contemplates how Colorado lost again.
“It’s nice when you do something well, and it felt good to hit two homers,” he says. “But at the same time, you have to take a hard look at what you could have done better. Could I have called a better game?”
After a few minutes of contemplation, Goodman takes a cold tub (about 40 degrees), followed by a long, hot shower to wash away the game.
“Baseball is a game of failure, so you always have to pat yourself on the back when you can,” he says. “That’s my mechanism, once I’m in the shower, to do that. But after I get out of the shower, I try to stop thinking about all of that stuff. I change my clothes, walk out of the clubhouse, meet my wife, and we head home for a late dinner together.”
Hunter Goodman’s All-Star credentials
Hunter Goodman will represent the Rockies in the 95th MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Atlanta’s Truist Park. The 25-year-old is just the second Rockies catcher to make the All-Star Game, joining Elias Diaz in 2023. Diaz was named the MVP after hitting a go-ahead, pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning to give the National League its first win since 2012.
Goodman was selected for this year’s team by a vote of other major league players. He put up some impressive numbers in his first season as a big-league starting catcher. Among those numbers:
• Goodman ranks first or second among NL catchers in nearly every offensive category.
• His 39 extra-base hits (17 homers, 18 doubles, four triples) are the most by an NL catcher before the All-Star break since Jonathan Lucroy’s 42 extra-base hits for the Brewers in 2014.
• His 17 home runs and 52 RBIs are both the most by a Rockies catcher before the All-Star break in franchise history. Of his 17 homers, 12 have come on the road.
• When catching, he’s slashed .306/.341/.594 with 14 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs and 39 RBIs in 60 games.
• His 52 total RBIs lead the team, and he’s hitting .333 with runners in scoring position.
— Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
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