Before meeting the rookie, before ever seeing him play, Chicago Cubs third base coach Brian Butterfield was an unabashed David Bote fan.



For Butterfield, one of the game’s top infield instructors, a video of Bote performing a series of fielding drills was a revelation like few he had experienced in his 40 years in baseball.



Call it, for lack of a better phrase, glove at first sight.



“It’s the first day of spring training,” Bote recalled. “(Butterfield) shakes my hand and has these big old eyes, like he’s looking into your soul. He says, ‘What’s your name?’ I say, ‘David.’ And he says, ‘Oh, Bote!’



“It was the first time I had met him. And he goes, ‘I just watched a 10-minute video of you. It’s fantastic!”



Bote, 25, burst onto the national stage Sunday night with the Cubs down to their last strike, hitting a pinch-hit walk-off grand slam to...