The Cardinals invited Molina to major league spring training camp following his draft. Although described as "raw", the young catcher purposed with fascination to emulate Matheny. At one point in that extended spring training, instructor Dave Ricketts observed Molina from a golf cart during a game as he was still learning how to catch; he had been transitioning from third base. After allowing a passed ball through his legs with a runner on third base, Molina raced to the backstop to retrieve the ball. Still hoping to prevent the runner from scoring, he instead found Ricketts in the golf cart parked on top of home plate. Ricketts had a reputation for becoming upset when minor league catchers allowed balls to bounce between their legs; for this, he removed Molina from the game and drove him to the batting cage. There, Ricketts batted 150 to 200 ground balls, as Molina estimated, to improve the young catcher's ability to block pitches.