GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Leon Roberts had a standard list of questions he liked to ask young players when he was the roving hitting instructor for the Reds. It was the early 2000s, the tail end of baseball’s steroid era, and the answers unsurprisingly reflected the times.
Who do you think about when you’re hitting? “Barry Bonds,” they’d say. Who is your favorite hitter? “Mark McGwire.” What type of hitter do you want to be? “A slugger, like Sammy Sosa.”
But one player, an 18-year-old catcher, surprised Roberts with a different reply. It was 2002 and that player was Joey Votto.