Some stories you chase. Some stories find you. And then there are the rare ones — the ones you watch grow from the ground up, in real time, season by season — that remind you exactly why you got into this business.
The Hunter Goodman Story
The Hunter Goodman story is that story for 4 Star Sports Media.
This is not a biography written from a press box in Denver or a studio in New York. This is the account of a sports media outlet that covered a kid from Arlington, Tennessee, years before his name appeared on the back of a Colorado Rockies jersey — and long before the rest of the country had any idea who he was. We have the receipts. We always have.
A Family Built for Baseball
Before Hunter Robert Goodman ever crouched behind a Major League plate, baseball was the language his family spoke.
He grew up in Arlington, Tennessee — a quiet suburb roughly 30 minutes east of Memphis, where the roads stretch between cornfields and the kind of community where everybody eventually knows everybody. His father, Robbie Goodman, was a cornerstone of Hunter’s baseball development from the very beginning, spending hours in the backyard working on every piece of his son’s game. Hunter’s mother, Ziggy Goodman, was a talented softball player in her own right — a competitor through and through, who brought that same fire and love for the sport to her son. And Hunter’s grandfather, Steve Hannah, watched it all unfold across the years with the quiet pride of a man who had seen something extraordinary take shape right in front of him.
The Goodman household was, by every definition, a baseball household. Ziggy had her own athletic lineage and passion for the sport. Robbie’s commitment to the backyard and the batting cage was constant and unwavering. And between the two of them, they built something in Hunter that no scout’s report could fully measure: a relentless, joyful, deeply rooted love for the game.
“He is a lot like his mother in the sense that they worked hard and loved the game,” Steve Hannah told 4 Star Sports Media in an interview that still resonates years later.
“Robbie was always in the backyard with him, working on his game,” Hannah added.
Those are not just nice things a grandfather says. Those are the two sentences that explain everything — the Silver Slugger, the All-Star selections, the home runs, the records. They explain the whole thing.
The Arlington Tiger: Overlooked, Underrated, Undeterred
Hunter Goodman attended Arlington High School, where his raw power and natural athleticism stood out even among talented regional competition. Coming out of high school in 2018, however, the national recruiting services largely overlooked him. The consensus was that he was a powerful right-handed hitter with plenty of raw pop, but questions about his plate discipline and his future defensive role behind the plate kept him from being considered an elite prospect.
He committed to the University of Memphis — the program right down the road from his Arlington front door — and arrived in the fall of 2018 ready to prove the doubters wrong.
He wasted no time.
As a freshman in 2019, Goodman hit .326 with 16 doubles, two triples, 13 home runs, 67 RBI, and 11 stolen bases in 55 games — leading all freshmen in the entire nation in RBI. Baseball America named him a First-Team Freshman All-American. He then went to the Cape Cod League that summer, where he continued to produce at a high level against the nation’s best amateur competition.
Then came something that people across Memphis still talk about.
During the COVID-shortened 2020 season — just 17 games played before the NCAA shut everything down — Goodman hit three grand slams in a single game, drove in 11 runs in one Sunday finale, and capped one of the most jaw-dropping individual weekends in program history. He batted .357 with eight home runs and 31 RBI in those 17 games before the plug was pulled on the season. For anyone watching closely — and 4 Star Sports Media was — it was becoming increasingly clear that this was not a regional story. This was something more.
By his junior season in 2021, Goodman was untouchable. He matched the program’s single-season home run record with 21, finished tied for fourth in the nation in home runs, led the American Athletic Conference in slugging percentage (.678), and broke the University of Memphis all-time career home run record — surpassing Rodney Bright’s mark that had stood since the late 1980s. His 51 RBI that season came in a lineup that opponents game-planned around stopping him.
The Memphis community knew. The people close to the program knew. 4 Star Sports Media knew. What happened next was not a surprise to anyone who had been watching.
“Hunter Goodman Is Headed to Colorado”
On July 11, 2021, the Colorado Rockies selected Hunter Goodman in the fourth round of the MLB Draft, 109th overall.
He was not a consensus first-rounder. He was not a flashy, highly-touted prospect. He was a fourth-round pick who many national analysts described as a bat-first player with an uncertain defensive future. What those analysts missed — and what 4 Star Sports Media did not — was the foundation underneath the numbers. The backyard sessions with Robbie. The competitive fire inherited from Ziggy. The family pride that Steve Hannah described so simply and so perfectly.
4 Star Sports Media covered his signing and reported on his departure toward the professional ranks. We told our audience — the Memphis audience, the Arkansas audience, the regional audience that trusts us — that this kid was going to prove people wrong. We weren’t speculating. We had watched him. We knew the family. We knew that kind of background does not disappear when a player signs a professional contract.
The minor league results confirmed what we had said. In his first professional summer, he hit .300 with seven home runs in just 22 games in the Arizona Complex League. In 2022, his first full professional season, split across three levels, he slugged 36 home runs and drove in 106 RBI across 135 games while batting .295. The arrow was always pointing up.
Then came the 2023 season — the year everything accelerated. At Double-A Hartford, he was one of the most feared hitters in the Eastern League. When the Rockies promoted him to Triple-A Albuquerque, he immediately posted nine home runs and 33 RBI in 15 games. Across all minor league levels in 2023, he finished with 34 home runs and 111 RBI in just 410 at-bats.
The call was coming. Everyone close to the story could feel it.
“Goodman Makes Impact for Rockies in Debut”
It was an afternoon like any other for Hunter Goodman — sharing a meal with his family — when his life changed.
The call arrived. The message was simple and surreal, and Hunter delivered it to his family straight: “I’m not in the starting lineup today… I have to be on a plane at 4:15 to Baltimore.”
On August 27, 2023, in Baltimore, Hunter Goodman made his Major League debut wearing #66 for the Colorado Rockies.
4 Star Sports Media was there to cover it — in real time, with full context, with the years of background that made the moment mean more than just a box score line. We were the outlet that could tell you not just what he did on the field that day, but what it meant to a family in Arlington, Tennessee, and what it meant to the University of Memphis program and the entire 901 community.
What he did on the field was this: In the first inning, he made an impressive catch on a throw from shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. In his very first MLB at-bat, he sent a fly ball deep to the warning track at the top of the left-center wall — pure raw power, undeniable, immediately visible to everyone in Camden Yards. In the fifth inning, he struck out, then bounced back in the sixth with a single up the middle off a first-pitch slider, earning his first MLB hit and his first MLB RBI — the MiLB RBI leader getting his first big-league knock. The Rockies celebrated it on social media that night: “The @MiLB RBI leader just got his first big league RBI (and hit)!”
But the defining moment of the debut came in the bottom of the ninth, with the Rockies protecting a 4-3 lead. Closer Justin Lawrence came on to shut things down, and the final out — fittingly — was made by Goodman himself, who caught Austin Hays’ fly ball to seal the victory.
The game was a window into everything. Offense. Defense. Clutch situations. Poise. The Rockies had their guy.
Memphis coach Matt Riser captured the feeling perfectly when 4 Star Sports Media reached him that day: “He’s made the city and the University of Memphis very proud. Hunter is a local product who stayed home to play for his city. I know Coach Rock and his former staff are very proud as well. It’s a great day for Hunter and his family, and we can’t wait to see him in that Rockies uniform. Go Tigers Go!”
Later, when 4 Star Sports Media spoke directly with Goodman about the call-up, he called it “quite the emotional day” — a simple phrase that carried everything inside it.
“A Family Affair”: The Story Behind the Star
Where other outlets covered the stat line, 4 Star Sports Media covered the story.
The article we published — “Rockies’ Rookie First Baseman Hunter Goodman: A Family Affair” — was the piece that separated us from the pack. Written by Wes Pruett and published September 17, 2023 — the same day Hunter hit his first Major League home run — it was the piece that went beyond the field and into the family that built him.
We spoke directly with Robbie Goodman, who could not hide his pride when we asked about his son’s journey: “I was excited over the whole situation and felt relieved that he’s finally getting rewarded for his hard work.”
The moment of seeing Hunter in that Rockies uniform, Robbie told us, was a massive source of pride — not just for him, but for the entire Goodman family. And he reflected on the road that led there with the measured perspective of a father who had been there for every step: “Obviously, the competition gets better at each level, and it’s been fun to watch Hunter grow and improve at each level.”
We told the story of Ziggy Goodman — the talented softball player, the competitor, the mother who raised a son with work ethic and fire and passion for the game. And we included the voice of Steve Hannah, Hunter’s grandfather, who gave us the two most important sentences in this entire story:
“He is a lot like his mother in the sense that they worked hard and loved the game.”
“Robbie was always in the backyard with him, working on his game.”
That is the whole story in 28 words. Everything Hunter Goodman has become — the two All-Star selections, the Silver Slugger, the Larry Walker records — traces back to a backyard in Arlington, a softball-playing mother named Ziggy, and a father named Robbie who never stopped throwing.
And on September 17, 2023 — the night that article ran — Hunter Goodman hit his first Major League home run. A 351-foot blast that, as the Rockies confirmed, would have been a home run in all 30 ballparks in Major League Baseball. The timing was not lost on any of us.
“Where Are They Now?”: The Interview That Showed His Depth
In February 2024, 4 Star Sports Media sat down with Hunter Goodman — Episode 57 of the 4 Star Sports Show — for a wide-ranging conversation that covered his 2023 season, his strong faith, his family, and the journey that brought him to this point.
It was the kind of interview that only works when there is a real relationship on both sides. Hunter knew us. We knew him. And so what came out of that conversation was not the polished, media-trained athlete giving press conference answers. It was Hunter Goodman — honest, grounded, deeply faithful, proudly from Arlington — talking about what mattered to him.
Nationally, the 2024 season itself was a transitional one. He appeared in 70 Major League games, hitting .190 with 13 home runs — a season that left casual observers uncertain about his trajectory. But those who had watched him closely understood what was happening: the Rockies were still figuring out how to use him, shuttling him between first base and designated hitter and part-time catching duties, never fully letting him settle into a single role.
The truth, which would only become clear in retrospect, was hidden inside a fascinating split. When Hunter caught — when he strapped on the gear, crouched behind the plate, and did the job his mother had done at the college level — he was a completely different hitter. In his 2025 plate appearances as the primary catcher, he would slash .290/.323/.572 with 28 home runs and 71 RBI. As a designated hitter, those numbers collapsed. Something about being behind the plate — reading pitchers the way his mother read pitchers, occupying the position the Goodman family had always occupied — made Hunter Goodman better at the plate.
The Rockies eventually figured it out. 4 Star Sports Media already suspected it.
“Hunter Goodman Is an MLB All-Star”
The 2025 season was the announcement to the world.
As the Colorado Rockies’ full-time catcher — finally settled, finally home at his natural position — Goodman exploded across 144 games: .278 batting average, 31 home runs, 91 RBI, finishing as the first NL catcher to hit 30 home runs in a season since Javy Lopez’s iconic 43-homer campaign for the Braves in 2003. He posted an .843 OPS. He was one of only a handful of catchers in the modern era to log at least 30 home runs and 90 RBI in their age-25 season or younger — joining Rudy York, Joe Torre, Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, and Gary Sanchez in that company.
The Rockies finished 43-119 — one of the worst records in modern baseball history. But Hunter Goodman was the reason to watch. He accounted for nearly 20% of the team’s total runs scored on his own. On a roster going nowhere, he was a one-man highlight reel.
On a Sunday in July 2025, following a 6-4 Rockies win over the Chicago White Sox — a game Goodman did not even start, resting for the day — the announcement came: Hunter Goodman had been named to the 2025 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard. Just the second Rockies catcher in franchise history to receive the honor, following Elias Díaz’s MVP performance in the 2023 game.
4 Star Sports Media published the piece immediately.
“The 25-year-old has made waves since the call-up, which was quite the emotional day, per Goodman to 4 Star Sports when it occurred,” we wrote.
And then we made the prediction that would hold up completely: we told our audience that Goodman should be in the Home Run Derby. The media had asked him about it after the White Sox game. His response was two words — “We’ll see” — followed by what reporters described as a “cagy grin.” We saw it for what it was.
“We at 4 Star Sports expect to see Goodman perform in the Home Run Derby,” we wrote. “This further solidified our prediction of having a Goodman in the Home Run Derby.”
On November 6, 2025, the Silver Slugger Award announcement confirmed the season’s place in history. Hunter Goodman won the National League Silver Slugger Award as the first catcher in Colorado Rockies history to earn the honor — the 17th Rockie to win it and the first since Trevor Story in 2019.
Robbie had been in the backyard. Ziggy had set the example. Steve Hannah had watched it all. And now the whole country was watching too.
2026: Back-to-Back, Records, and Philadelphia
The 2026 season has been Hunter Goodman’s declaration.
Through the first half of the season, he is slashing .251 with 27 home runs, 50 RBI, and an .868 OPS — on pace for 49 home runs over a full 162-game season. His 27 home runs before the All-Star break are tied with Hall of Famer Larry Walker’s 2001 mark for the Rockies franchise record through the first 90 games of a season. He is third in MLB history among primary catchers for home runs through 90 games, sitting in company with Mike Piazza (2000) and behind only Cal Raleigh (2025) and Johnny Bench (1970).
His Statcast profile is elite: 91.5 mph average exit velocity, 17.3% barrel rate, 46.6% hard-hit rate. Critically — countering decades of Coors Field inflator arguments — 18 of his 27 home runs have come on the road. These are not altitude creations. These are real, line-drive, barrel-to-ball bombs hit in every park across the National League.baseballsavant.
On July 4, 2026 — Independence Day — Warren Schaeffer called Hunter Goodman into his office at Coors Field to tell him he had been named an All-Star for the second consecutive year. Robbie Goodman was there at Coors that day throwing batting practice, and the manager brought him in for the announcement.
“Dad was here throwing BP, and we invited him in,” Hunter said afterward. “I wasn’t expecting him, so it was pretty cool.“
The same man who used to be in the backyard every night in Arlington. In the office at Coors Field for the second All-Star announcement in two years.
And now, on July 13, 2026 — the T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, live on Netflix — Robbie Goodman will throw to his son in front of the entire country.
Hunter confirmed it himself: “I would love for him to. He still [throws to me] — not every day, but we go hit together probably two or three times a week in the offseason. We go to a facility close to where we live when he gets off from work.”
Two or three times a week. When he gets off from work. Just like always. Just like it has always been.
The Full Arc
This is the story that 4 Star Sports Media has told — in pieces, in articles, in podcast episodes, in real time, across three years of coverage built on a relationship that goes back further than any of the bylines.
We were there when the call came, and Hunter told his family he had to be on a plane at 4:15 to Baltimore.
We were there when Robbie Goodman told us he felt “relief that he’s finally getting rewarded for his hard work.”
We were there when Steve Hannah said Ziggy and Hunter were alike because “they worked hard and loved the game” — and that Robbie was always in the backyard.
We were there when Hunter sat down with us for Episode 57 and talked about his faith, his family, and what the journey meant to him.
We were there when he made his first All-Star team, won the Silver Slugger, gave the “cagy grin” about the Derby, and made history at the position his mother once played.
And we are here now — as Robbie Goodman loosens up his arm before the most-watched Home Run Derby in years, as the 96th Midsummer Classic prepares to play at Citizens Bank Park, as the whole country discovers what a family in Arlington, Tennessee, has always known:
Hunter Goodman is one of the best hitters in baseball. He is a Memphis Tiger. He is Ziggy’s son and Robbie’s son. He is built from backyard cuts and Cape Cod summers and a grandfather’s quiet pride and a family that loved this game long before the cameras arrived.
We were there first.
That is what 4 Star Sports Media does.
Original coverage archive:
“Hunter Goodman Is an MLB All-Star” — Wes Pruett, July 2025
“Hunter Goodman Is Headed to Colorado” — Wes Pruett, August 27, 2023
“Goodman Makes Impact for Rockies in Debut” — Wes Pruett, August 27, 2023
“Rockies’ Rookie First Baseman Hunter Goodman: A Family Affair” — Wes Pruett, September 17, 2023
“Where Are They Now? Hunter Goodman” — 4 Star Sports Show, Episode 57, February 11, 2024
